UK: Bradford meat firm fined for fake halal meat

Source: BBC

A food wholesale firm that sold meat with counterfeit halal labels has been fined £7,500.

Zaman Brothers Wholesale Halal Meat Limited in Bradford supplied 65 boxes of meat and fat to Golden Delight Foods Limited in Saltley, Birmingham in 2012.

At Birmingham Crown Court, director Munawar Zaman admitted using fake labels on non-halal products.

He was ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work and pay court costs of more than £8,000.

‘Deceives consumers’

Zaman was also issued with a £3,500 confiscation order.

Birmingham Trading Standards said all halal meat must be approved by the Halal Monitoring Committee (HMC) and that an HMC inspector should be present each time approved meat was subject to any process.

The inspector then issues stickers and tags when the meat is cut.

Zaman also admitted having 5,000 consecutively numbered labels in the style of the HMC with a view to applying them to meat products which had not been inspected.

Jacqui Kennedy, from Birmingham City Council said: “Advertising and supplying non-Halal Monitoring Committee products and passing them off as approved is a serious criminal offence, as it deceives consumers.”