Viral Wine with Halal Label, Surveyor: 'Could be Counterfeit'

Dream - PT Surveyor Indonesia (PTSI), appointed as the halal inspection agency (LPH) by the Halal Product Assurance Organizing Agency (BPJPH), ensures that wine made from grapes but containing alcohol will never obtain a halal label.

The President Director of PT Surveyor Indonesia (PTSI), M Haris Witjaksono, asserts that the halal certification process is carried out with strict procedures. Based on his experience, he has never labeled alcoholic beverages as halal products.

'It could be counterfeit, label information, and if the certification process itself is not displayed, I believe that wine will not obtain a halal label if they go through the correct assessment process,' he said as quoted from Liputan6.com, Tuesday, August 1, 2023.

Furthermore, Haris revealed that the halal assessment process uses the principle of traceability. Every step from production to the end is ensured to fall into the category of halal activities.

Based on the findings, PTSI can provide assessment results to BPJPH, which will issue the halal certification.

'This is important because 85 percent of our population is Muslim, and assurance of halal products is a necessity,' he said.

In another part, Haris revealed that there has been an increase in certification in recent years. This can be seen from the increasing number of products with halal labels in the market.

'In the past two years, there has been extraordinary acceleration. If we look at malls and other places, we can see that there are many halal food and product options, and many of them are certified,' he explained.

However, Haris admitted that there is still a possibility that the certification process may not be as accurate as intended. This is because the honesty of entrepreneurs is one of the crucial aspects.

'So, risks will always arise in the context of certification, where transparency becomes important. This means that the halal certification scheme in Indonesia respects the honesty of business players,' he explained.

Viral Halal-Certified Red Wine Product, Here are the Facts

Dream - Recently, there has been information circulating on social media about the sale of halal-certified Red Wine under the brand Nabidz.

In response, the Halal Product Assurance Organizing Agency (BPJPH) of the Ministry of Religious Affairs stated that they have never issued a halal certificate for wine products.

'Regarding the information about the online sale of wine products under the brand Nabidz, claimed to be halal-certified, we need to clarify that BPJPH has never issued a halal certificate for wine products,' said the Head of BPJPH, Muhammad Aqil Irham, in Jakarta, Wednesday, July 26, 2023.

'Based on the data in the Sihalal system, we can confirm that there is indeed a fruit drink product under the brand Nabidz that has obtained halal certification from BPJPH. However, the product is not wine or red wine, but fruit juice,' he added.

Aqil continued that the Nabidz fruit juice product applied for halal certification on May 25, 2023, through the self-declaration mechanism with the assistance of the Halal Product Process (PPH) conducted by the PPH Assistant.

The application was verified and validated on May 25, 2023, with the submitted product being grape fruit juice under the Nabidz brand.

The PPH Assistant has also ensured that the ingredients used are halal.

The production process carried out by the business operators is also simple, and they stated that there is no fermentation process involved. The product photo uploaded on Sihalal also shows a plastic bottle packaging.

'Based on the verification results from the PPH Assistant, no violations or non-compliance with the regulations were found. Furthermore, the Fatwa Committee determined the halal status of the product on June 12, 2023,' said Aqil.

Subsequently, BPJPH received a complaint that the issued Halal Certificate (HC) was actually used for another product. According to Aqil, BPJPH does not condone such actions.

He stated that BPJPH has immediately deployed the Halal Product Assurance Supervision team to investigate the facts on the ground.

'We have deployed the Supervision team to thoroughly investigate all possibilities. If there are any violations, we will firmly impose sanctions according to the applicable regulations, including revoking the Halal Certification,' he said.

Currently, BPJPH has blocked the Halal Certificate with ID131110003706120523 for the Grape Fruit Juice product under the Nabidz brand.

'We are doing this until the investigation process by the supervision team is completed. This is part of BPJPH's responsibility in carrying out the halal product assurance task,' he said.