Food Programme - Halal

Sheila Dillon looks at the growing demand for halal meat in Britain and how the meat industry is responding to this growing market.

Reporter Sara Parker visits an abattoir in the West Midlands where cattle and sheep are slaughtered according to halal principles and meets managing director Naved Syed, who is calling for better regulation of the halal market.

Sheila hears from Dr Mara Miele, a sociologist at Cardiff University and the co-ordinator of Dialrel, which is a four-year project set up to research religious slaughter across Europe. Large variations exist across the EU in terms of how animals are slaughtered. Some Muslims believe meat from an animal that has been stunned before slaughter complies with halal principles; others strongly disagree. Dialrel is attempting to share best practice and improve animal welfare across the board.

Dialrel is also researching the production of kosher meat. Sheila speaks to Rabbi Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Professor in Judaism at the University of Wales, about the tension between the religious principles that underpin kosher and halal meat and moral questions over animal welfare.