Vanilla flavor and the stigma of alcohol for Halal markets

 

Dr.Muhammad Munir Chaudry

The Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA)

Park Ridge, Illinois

m.chaudry@ifanca.org

 

 

From product designers to chefs and cooks, one cannot imagine a sweet product without the use of vanilla from dominant flavor to background notes. The fact that flavors contain alcohol is regurgitated on the Internet over and over, which causes concern for hundreds of millions of Halal consumers across the globe, because adherents to the faith of Islam are required to avoid alcohol and all forms of intoxicants. This paper will discuss how food scientists and religious scholars are working together to address and resolve this issue to overcome the dilemma.

 

Dr. Muhammad Chaudry, a career food technologist, received his academic education in Pakistan, Lebanon and the United States with a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. For 15 years he worked in the food industry at various technical and management positions, responsible for total quality, quality assurance, human resources and employee training. For the past 30 years, Dr. Chaudry has been managing Halal certification programs for the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA). Under his administration, Halal certification by IFANCA has expanded to over 4000 production sites in 56 countries. Halal certified products include meat and poultry, seafood, food products, food ingredients and chemicals, nutritional products and supplements, cosmetics, personal care products, household products, vaccines, food processing chemicals, sanitation chemicals and packaging materials. He is a member of the Institute of Food Technologists and expert consultant to the World Organization for Animal Health. He has written several articles and papers in technical journals as well as co-authored a book about Halal Food Production published by CRC PRESS. He was an international delegate for food safety workshops conducted in India, under the sponsorship of the United Nations International Trade Center and the American Spice Trade Association. Dr. Chaudry is experienced in the management of not-for-profit organizations and industrial corporations in a cross-functional environment.