Natural flavors in the food: are they halal?

[verdana]

Probably this topic already discussed but I can't find any satisfactory answer.

Natural flavors can contain some amount of alcohol.. Today pretty much most of baked food products have natural flavors.

It is easy to verify if the food contains any animal by-products, however, for alcohol it is not such an easy job. Two days ago I called this company to see if they have any alcohol inside their products saying that I am allergic to alcohol. After some research they called me few hours ago and told me that all of their products have traces of alcohol that are caused by break-down of barley.. as for the animal ingredients there is none.

So this "traces of alcohol" raised my concerns.

My question is, is it halal to consume foods that have natural flavor ingredients or some traces of alcohol?

Also, isn't vinegar obtained from wine and in the end have some content of alcohol? But it is halal.

[woeuntothee]

http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=1&ID=1448

'khamr' is alcohol derived from dates or grapes.

[verdana]

The problem is you don't know whether it is synthetic alcohol or not.

[insufficient]

I read somewhere that even pure grape juice etc. contains trace amounts of alcohol.. will search for the source

[alfatiha]

When they say breaking down barley is it due to fermentation and not directly added? e.g. they don't pour beer, wine, etc, but ferment the barley with yeasts that generate alcohol.
When you make bread, the yeast also generate alcohol due to fermentation.

[verdana]

When they say breaking down barley is it due to fermentation and not directly added? e.g. they don't pour beer, wine, etc, but ferment the barley with yeasts that generate alcohol.

That's what they said: no external addition is done and that they can't prevent barley from producing that alcohol.

[alfatiha]

That's what they said: no external addition is done and that they can't prevent barley from producing that alcohol.

That might have different rulings than if wine is directly added. I don't know the rulings, but it might have been the same with the bread, perhaps? unless their intention is to make alcohol from the barley?

[verdana]

unless their intention is to make alcohol from the barley?

How their intention would make the ruling different considering the fact that their food does not intoxicate?

[alfatiha]

How their intention would make the ruling different considering the fact that their food does not intoxicate?

from Shafi'i point of view, it depends what substance that it started from, if I'm not mistaken. Making vinegar from halal raw, solid materials is ok even though in the middle of the production/fermentation, alcohol is generated (which is in the case of ALL vinegar). If the production is to make wine/beer and vinegar from that wine/beer as a side product, then the intention is different. That vinegar making is started from something haram instead of halal materials. Hanafi point of view is perhaps different.

[rasheedahmed]

Assalam O Alaikum

One request before giving my response about mentioning the name of country such as USA or UK, it will be helpful to others too because I can say only about USA. First of all the food company's consumer department employed non technical people and they provided some general information such as ingredients statement, source of ingredients and some other things. Sometimes if they do not find the answers on their computer screen, they try to put their own two cents. The good example is " all of their products have traces of alcohol that are caused by break-down of barley.. as for the animal ingredients there is none". The animal ingredient part is ok but the rest is his or her own two cents and lack of technical training and technical background. So do not pay attention to breakdown of barley.

In USA/Canada, FDA of both countries has Code of Federal Regulations about the definition of both natural and artificial flavors and other regulations.

Natural or Artificial flavor has two components, one is flavoring component and other is non flavoring component or solvent or carrier. No flavor company reveals composition of flavoring component because it is a trade secret and not mentioned in flavor specification. But they reveal the name of non flavoring component or solvent or carrier in flavor specification which could be alcohol(Haram solvent) or Propylene Glycol(Halal solvent), vegetable oil, water, maltodextrin in dry flavors etc. This non flavoring component is called Processing Aid Ingredient or Hidden Ingredient of a flavor and FDA do not require it to be mentioned under ingredients statement. Writing Natural or Artificial flavor in the ingredients statement will satisfy the FDA law. Under 2% of the formula of a food product or ingredient can be remained hidden in any food product or ingredient such as lubricant used on cookie band oven to prevent cookies stick to oven band. But you never see it is mentioned under ingredients statement.

Flavor specification of flavors used in company's food products is available to only QA, R & D, Technical service department but not to consumer department, this is the reason, she or he said the weird answer.

Muslim Consumer Group educates Muslims in USA/Canada to ask this question about alcohol in flavor of any food product to a food company's consumer department:

" Is alcohol used as a solvent or carrier in natural or artificial flavor of this food product? since alcohol is a hidden ingredient of flavor if used. This information is available in the specification of flavor. Flavor specification is available at your QA department, could you please ask them to find out. Since we cannot consume alcohol based on our religious dietary requirements"

If you do not ask above question and just ask do you have alcohol in the food product, they will look at the ingredients list and tell you, no alcohol is present in this food product which is a wrong answer.

The flavor of a food product substance is the combined sensation of taste and odor. Natural Flavor must made from natural sources or substrate, artificial flavor is not obtained from natural substrate or from chemicals is defined as Artificial flavor.

I have discussed a lot about alcohol in foods on this forum, MCG Hanafi Ulema do not consider any food product as Halal if alcohol from any source is used as a solvent or carrier in flavors or as an ingredients no matter if it evaporates and remained in very minimum amount. They said that it is Haram because it is a intoxicant. Khamer is a Najus if obtained from grape or date and when it falls on your cloth, you cannot pray without washing it. But Khamer from other than grape and date is not Najus but still it intoxicant because it has quality to make a person intoxicant. Other Hanafi Ulema may have different opinions.

Syed Rasheeduddin Ahmed
Muslim Consumer Group For Food Products USA
www.muslimconsumergroup.com
www.canadianhalalfoods.com