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 goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

used by

Nortura Nortura is a Norwegian agricultural cooperative that operates slaughterhouses and other processing plants related to meat and eggs. The company was created as a merger between Gilde Norsk Kjøtt and Prior Norge in 2006, and has head offices in Os ...

on its

halal ''Halal'' (; ) is an Arabic word that translates to in English. Although the term ''halal'' is often associated with Islamic dietary laws, particularly meat that is slaughtered according to Islamic guidelines, it also governs ethical practices ...

meat distributed in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The meat is approved by the Islamic Council Norway. 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 includes a number of cuisines from the Middle East. Common ingredients include olives and olive oil, pitas, honey, sesame seeds, dates, sumac, chickpeas, mint, rice and parsley, and popular dishes include '' kebabs'', ...

. Alfathi was created by

Gilde Norsk Kjøtt Gilde Norsk Kjøtt is a defunct Norway, 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.Solho ...

in 2001 to produce typical Norwegian foods which could meet the strict slaughter restrictions within

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

. Among the products available are

pizza Pizza is an Italian cuisine, Italian, specifically Neapolitan cuisine, Neapolitan, dish typically consisting of a flat base of Leavening agent, leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomato, cheese, and other ingredients, baked at a high t ...

hamburger A hamburger (or simply a burger) consists of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. The patties are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, or chilis ...

, 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 Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they ar ...

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

Qur'an The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...

and the

Norwegian Food Safety Authority Norwegian Food Safety Authority () is a Norwegian government agency responsible for safe food and drinking water, and works within the fields of human, plant, fish and animal health as well as environmentally friendly production and ethically a ...

. This includes such requirements as that the slaughterer must be a Muslim, that the animal's head must face the

Qibla The qibla () is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Great Mosque of Mecca, Sacred Mosque in Mecca, which is used by Muslims in various religious contexts, particularly the direction of prayer for the salah. In Islam, the Kaaba is believed to ...

, and the animal is blessed 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 business or firm performs in order to deliver goods and services of Value (economics), value to an end customer. The concept comes from the field of business management and was first described ...

until distribution.

Controversy

In July 2007 a number of Islamic groups encouraged a

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent resistance, nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organisation, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for Morality, moral, society, social, politics, political, or Environmenta ...

of the

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

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