UP bans halal items; exempts export goods

Except FSSAI, no agency or body can issue certificates to products.

- Pawan Dixit, Anupam Srivastava and Rohit Singh

The Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday banned production, storage, distribution and sale of halal-certified products in the state with immediate effect, a day after Lucknow police booked four organisations over alleged extortion in the name of providing halal certificates to retail products.

Export products, however, were kept out of the purview of the ban on halal-certified items.

In a notification, the state government pointed out that halal certification, which was earlier confined to meat products, was being issued even to vegetarian FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) products and cosmetics that do not require such certification. "The state government has banned production, storage, distribution and sale of halal-certified products in the state with immediate effect. Only export products will be exempted from this ban," the notification issued by Anita Singh, commissioner and additional chief secretary, Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA), Uttar Pradesh, said.