Alfathi (lit. ''New Possibilities'') is a

brand name A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create a ...

used by Nortura on its

halal ''Halal'' (; ar, حلال, ) is an Arabic word that translates to "permissible" in English. In the Quran, the word ''halal'' is contrasted with '' haram'' (forbidden). This binary opposition was elaborated into a more complex classification k ...

meat distributed in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The meat is approved by the

Islamic Council Norway The Islamic Council Norway ( no, Islamsk Råd Norge, IRN) is an umbrella organisation for Muslim congregations and organisations in Norway. Currently, it represents 41 congregations totalling about 60.000 members. The offices are located in Oslo. ...

. There has traditionally been a disharmony between the Norwegian food traditions and availability of halal meat, the latter often only being provided for

Middle Eastern cuisine Middle Eastern cuisine or West Asian cuisine includes Arab, Armenian, Assyrian, Azerbaijani, Cypriot, Egyptian, Georgian, Iranian, Iraqi, Israeli, Kurdish, Lebanese, Palestinian and Turkish cuisines. Common ingredients include olives ...

. Alfathi was created by

Gilde Norsk Kjøtt Gilde Norsk Kjøtt is a defunct Norwegian red meat processing company organised as an agricultural cooperative. The company was by far the largest processor in the country when it merged with Prior Norge in 2006 to create Nortura.Solholm, Roll ...

in 2001 to produce typical Norwegian foods which could meet the strict slaughter restrictions within Islam. Among the products available are

pizza Pizza (, ) is a dish of Italian origin consisting of a usually round, flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and often various other ingredients (such as various types of sausage, anchovies, mushrooms, ...

hamburger A hamburger, or simply burger, is a food consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically Ground beef, beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles ...

, meat slices and wieners. Products are of course not made from prohibited species, such as pigs and

carnivore A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other ...

s. The halal slaughter procedure used by Nortura meets all requirements both set by the

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , si ...

and the Norwegian Food Safety Authority. This includes such requirements as that the slaughterer must be a Muslim, that the animal's head must face the

Qibla The qibla ( ar, قِبْلَة, links=no, lit=direction, translit=qiblah) is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, which is used by Muslims in various religious contexts, particularly the direction of prayer for the s ...

, and the animal is

blessed Blessed may refer to: * The state of having received a blessing * Blessed, a title assigned by the Roman Catholic Church to someone who has been beatified Film and television * ''Blessed'' (2004 film), a 2004 motion picture about a supernatura ...

at the time of slaughter. Norwegian law requires that the animal is stunned before slaughter. This does not break halal rules, but is not the traditional method used by Muslims. The time between the stunning of the animal and the slaughter is about 20 seconds. The killing of the animal is done by cutting the two main arteries in the neck and immediately draining the animal of blood. After slaughter, the halal meat has a separate

value chain A value chain is a progression of activities that a firm operating in a specific industry performs in order to deliver a valuable product (i.e., good and/or service) to the end customer. The concept comes through business management and was firs ...

until distribution.

Controversy

In July 2007 a number of Islamic groups encouraged a

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict s ...

of the

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domestication, domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey junglefowl, grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster ...

halal brands in Norway, since about 10% of chickens died after stunning but without being bled. The halal rules state that the animal must be alive when its throat is cut to be slaughtered properly, so animals that died when stunned are not halal.

References

External links

Alfathi web site

Nortura

Gilde
{{Agricultural cooperatives in Norway Norwegian brands Islam in Norway