Is it halal? Check a food or ingredient

Beef is halal. The cow is one of the grazing livestock Allah made lawful, so beef, veal and buffalo are halal when the animal is slaughtered by a Muslim, or with conditions by a Jew or Christian, who cuts the throat and says Allah's name.

Chicken, turkey, duck, goose, quail, pigeon and other birds that do not hunt with talons are halal when properly slaughtered. A bird that feeds mainly on filth until its meat smells (jallalah) is disliked until it has been kept on clean feed for some days, three days for a chicken in the Hanafi books.

Lamb, mutton, goat and camel are halal when slaughtered properly. They are the animals of qurbani and the meat the Prophet ﷺ ate most.

Pork is haram in every form: bacon, ham, most sausages, pepperoni, lard, pork fat, pork gelatin and pork rennet. In the Hanafi school the pig is impure in itself (najis al-ayn), so every part of it is forbidden, not only the meat. Only real necessity, such as starvation with nothing else to eat, lifts the ban, and then only for what keeps you alive.

Imam Abu Hanifa held horse meat disliked (makruh), and the preferred Hanafi view is that the dislike is a mild one (tanzihi). His two students, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad, held it permitted. So horse meat is not haram for a Hanafi, but it is better left.

Domestic donkeys are haram, and so are mules, which take the donkey's ruling. The wild ass is different: it is halal, and many contemporary scholars class the zebra with it.

Rabbit and hare are halal when slaughtered or hunted properly.

Wild grazing animals and birds that do not hunt are halal: deer, antelope, elk, ostrich and similar. Kangaroo is a grazing animal with no fangs, so many scholars class it as halal when slaughtered. Game is halal when a Muslim, Jew or Christian hunts it with Allah's name and it dies from the wound, or is slaughtered if caught alive. Wild boar is a pig and is haram.

Every animal that hunts with fangs (dogs, cats, lions, tigers, wolves, bears, foxes) and every bird that hunts with talons (eagles, hawks, falcons, owls, vultures) is haram. So are animals that people find vile, such as rats, mice and other vermin.

All fish are halal, and they need no slaughter. In the Hanafi school the one exception is a fish that died in the water by itself, with no cause, and floated to the surface (al-samak al-tafi), which is not eaten. Fish caught, farmed or found on the shore is halal.

Tuna is a fish, so it is halal in every school, fresh or tinned. A tuna sandwich or salad is only a question when it is mixed with non-halal ingredients or made with the same utensils as ham.

Eel is counted as a fish in the Hanafi school, so it is halal. Al-Hidayah names the eel among the fish that may be eaten.

Caviar and fish roe take the ruling of the fish they come from. Sturgeon, salmon, cod and flying fish are all fish, so their roe is halal. The Hanafi school does not require a fish to have scales; doubts about sturgeon come from a view outside the four schools.

Hanafi scholars differ on shrimp and prawns. The Hanafi school allows only fish from the sea, so the question is whether a shrimp counts as a fish. Many scholars of the Indian subcontinent, including the fatwa department of Darul Uloom Deoband, hold that it does not, and call it makruh tahrimi (close to haram). Others, including Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani, point out that Arabic usage has long called the shrimp a kind of fish, so they hold that eating it is permitted, while avoiding it is more cautious.

Crab is not a fish, so it is not eaten in the Hanafi school. It is makruh tahrimi, which is treated like haram.

Lobster, crayfish and crawfish are not fish, so they are not eaten in the Hanafi school.

Mussels, oysters, clams, scallops and other shellfish are not fish, so they are not eaten in the Hanafi school. Oyster sauce, made from oyster extract, takes the same ruling.

Squid, calamari, cuttlefish and octopus are not fish, so they are not eaten in the Hanafi school.

Raw fish is halal, so sashimi and fish sushi are fine. Two things need checking: mirin, a sweet rice wine that some kitchens add to the rice or sauces and which is an alcoholic drink, and fillings such as shrimp, crab or squid, which the Hanafi school does not eat.

If a Muslim forgot to say Bismillah when slaughtering, the meat is halal. If he left it out on purpose, the meat is haram.

Most Hanafi scholars do not accept machine-slaughtered chicken as it is usually done: one Bismillah or a recording for a whole line of birds, a blade that can miss the throat, and birds that may already be dead. Hanafi scholars such as Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani have written that it is halal only if a Muslim says Allah's name and sets the blade going for the birds he cuts, the cut severs the required vessels, and each bird is alive when cut.

Stunning does not make meat haram by itself, as long as the animal is still alive when its throat is cut and the stun did not kill it. An animal that dies from the stun before slaughter is carrion and haram. Many Hanafi scholars still dislike stunning, because it causes pain and some animals die from it.

The meat of Jews and Christians is lawful in principle (Quran 5:5), and kosher slaughter (shechita) cuts the throat with a sharp knife, as Islamic slaughter does. Hanafi scholars differ over kosher meat because the Hanafi school requires Allah's name to be said over each animal, and in shechita a blessing is usually said once at the start, not over each animal. Many Hanafi scholars therefore advise against it when halal meat is available.

Most Hanafi scholars today hold that ordinary supermarket and restaurant meat in Western countries is not halal. The meat of Jews and Christians is lawful only when they slaughter it by cutting the throat and mention Allah's name, and industrial meat is often stunned, machine cut and slaughtered by people of any religion or none, with no name of Allah said.

Meat slaughtered by someone who is not a Muslim, a Jew or a Christian is haram in all four schools, even if the method is correct.

Flowing blood and any animal that died without being slaughtered (carrion) are haram in all four schools. That includes black pudding and blood sausage. The little blood that stays in meat after slaughter is not forbidden, and liver and spleen are halal.

Cheese is halal in the Hanafi school unless its rennet comes from a pig. Imam Abu Hanifa held that rennet taken from a calf that was not properly slaughtered is still pure and lawful; his two students disagreed. Microbial, vegetable and fermentation-made rennet (chymosin) are halal in every school.

Whey is the liquid left over when cheese is made, so it takes the cheese's ruling: halal in the Hanafi school unless pork rennet was used. Casein and lactose come from milk and are halal.

Milk, butter, cream, ghee, eggs and plain yogurt are halal. Some yogurts and desserts add gelatin, some ice creams and cream desserts add alcohol, and some pink yogurts use E120.

Kefir and shop-bought kombucha are halal. They are fermented and carry a trace of alcohol, but no amount you could drink would intoxicate, so they take the ruling of bread, vinegar and yogurt, not of wine. "Hard" kombucha, brewed to be alcoholic, is a different drink and is haram.

Gelatin is halal if it comes from fish or from cattle slaughtered the halal way, and haram if it comes from pork. Most Hanafi scholars also do not accept gelatin from cattle that were not slaughtered the halal way. Some scholars argue that making gelatin changes the substance completely (istihalah), which would make even pork gelatin pure, but most Hanafi scholars today hold that the change is not complete.

Most marshmallows, gummy bears, jelly sweets, Jell-O and many cake toppings are set with gelatin, often from pork. They are halal only when the gelatin is halal (fish or halal beef) or the sweet uses a plant setting agent such as pectin, agar or starch.

E120 (carmine, cochineal, carminic acid, "natural red 4") is a red dye made from crushed cochineal insects. Insects other than locusts are not eaten in the Hanafi school, so food coloured with E120 is not halal. On the skin it is different: insects without flowing blood are not impure, so lipstick or make-up with carmine does not affect your prayer.

E471 (mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids) and the related emulsifiers E470a, E470b, E472a to E472f, E473, E474, E475, E477, E481, E482 and E483 are made from fats. The fat can be plant oil (soy, palm, sunflower) or animal fat, including pork. From plants or halal animals they are halal; from pork or non-halal animal fat they are not.

Glycerin can be made from plant oils, from animal fat (including pork) or synthetically. From plants, halal animals or synthetic sources it is halal. From pork or non-halal animal fat it is not, for food.

Edible bone phosphate is made from animal bones. From halal-slaughtered cattle it is halal; from pigs or non-halal animals it is not.

Shellac is a resin the lac insect secretes, not the insect itself. It is used to glaze sweets, fruit and pills. Many Hanafi scholars allow it, comparing it to honey and silk, which also come from insects.

L-cysteine is a dough improver used in some bread and baked goods. It is made from feathers, pig bristles, human hair, or by fermentation. From human hair it is haram, out of respect for the human body. From pig bristles it is haram. From the feathers of halal birds, or made by fermentation, it is halal.

Disodium inosinate (E631) and disodium ribonucleotides (E635), often found in crisps and instant noodles, are made from meat, fish, or by fermenting plant sugars such as tapioca. From fish or plants they are halal; from pork or non-halal meat they are not. MSG (E621) itself is made by fermentation and is halal.

Lecithin is usually made from soy, sunflower or egg yolk, all of which are halal.

These thickeners and setting agents are halal. Carrageenan (E407) and agar (E406) come from seaweed, pectin (E440) from fruit, guar (E412), locust bean (E410) and arabic (E414) gums from plants, and xanthan gum (E415) is made by fermenting sugar with bacteria.

"Natural flavour" can come from plants, meat or dairy, and many flavourings are dissolved in alcohol. In the Hanafi school the small amount of grain or synthetic alcohol used as a carrier is not a problem when it does not intoxicate (see vanilla extract). Flavours made from pork or wine are.

Wine, beer, spirits and every intoxicating drink are haram. In the Hanafi school wine made from grapes or dates is haram in any amount and impure. For other drinks, the position the school gives fatwa on (that of Imam Muhammad) is that any drink that intoxicates in a large amount is haram even in a small amount.

Many contemporary Hanafi scholars allow vanilla extract in baking and cooking. Its alcohol is usually made from grain or sugar, not grapes or dates, so in the Hanafi school it is not khamr, and the amount in a cake does not intoxicate. This follows Imam Abu Hanifa's view on non-grape alcohol, as Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani has explained it for modern foods and medicines. Drinking the extract on its own is a different matter.

Food cooked with wine, beer, rum, brandy or other alcoholic drinks is not halal. Cooking does not reliably remove all the alcohol, and in the Hanafi school wine is impure, so it makes the food impure. This covers wine sauces, beer-battered fish, rum cake, tiramisu made with marsala or liqueur, and flambéed desserts. Dijon mustard made with white wine is in the same group.

All vinegar is halal, including wine vinegar, balsamic, rice and malt vinegar. When wine turns into vinegar its nature changes (istihalah), and in the Hanafi school this holds whether it turned by itself or was made into vinegar on purpose.

A drink with 0.0% alcohol that cannot intoxicate is not haram in itself, but most scholars dislike it: it imitates a drink of sin and keeps the taste for it alive. "Alcohol-free" drinks with up to 0.5% are more doubtful, and many scholars say to avoid them.

Sugar alcohols such as sorbitol (E420), mannitol (E421), maltitol (E965), xylitol (E967) and erythritol (E968) are not alcohol in the drinking sense. They are sweeteners that cannot intoxicate, so they are halal in every school.

Alcohol made from grain, sugar, corn or petroleum is not khamr in the Hanafi school, so hand sanitiser, perfume, deodorant and medicines that contain it are pure and may be used. Medicine with alcohol may be taken when it is needed, not for intoxication.

Naturally brewed soy sauce, miso and gochujang are fermented and carry a trace of alcohol from fermentation, as bread does. They are halal. Some brands add ethanol as a preservative, which the Hanafi school treats like the alcohol in vanilla extract.

Bread, yeast and malt extract are halal. Yeast makes a trace of alcohol while dough rises, and baking drives it off. It is not wine and does not intoxicate.

Insects are not eaten in the Hanafi school, with the exception of locusts. That covers ants, beetles, mealworms, larvae, and foods made with insect flour or "insect protein". Whether the cricket counts as a kind of locust is a question scholars discuss.

Locusts are halal in all four schools, and they need no slaughter.

Frogs are haram in the Hanafi school, and also in the Shafi'i and Hanbali schools.

Crocodiles, alligators, turtles, snakes, lizards and other reptiles are not eaten in the Hanafi school. They are not fish, and many are predators with fangs or harmful.

Land snails (escargot) are not eaten in the Hanafi school, as small creatures that people find vile.

Plain chocolate is halal: cocoa, sugar, milk and plant lecithin. What needs checking is the extras: liqueur or rum fillings, gelatin in mousse and soft centres, E120 in pink coatings, and fat-based emulsifiers from an unknown source.

Everything from plants is halal unless it intoxicates or harms: fruit, vegetables, grains, pulses, nuts, tofu, tempeh, seaweed, mushrooms and mycoprotein (Quorn). Mushrooms that intoxicate ("magic mushrooms") are haram.

A vegetarian or vegan dish at a non-halal restaurant is halal in itself. Things are pure until you know otherwise, so you do not need to investigate every kitchen. If you know the food was cooked in pork fat, fried in the same oil as pork or non-halal meat, or contains wine, it is not halal.