A tasty scheme to put halal food on the blockchain

It may come as a surprise that most halal food comes from non-Muslim countries.

That’s a big part of the reason why ex-IBM staffer and serial entrepreneur Azman Ivan Tan wants to put halal food on the blockchain.

“Lots of companies want to become halal,” says Tan, explaining that food producers are chasing after 1.5 billion Muslim consumers, who contribute to the US$1.4 trillion halal food industry.

By verifying that meat has been slaughtered in accordance with halal principles, his soon-to-launch blockchain will boost food makers while reassuring buyers.

Food items will be verifiable through the WhatsHalal app, with the blockchain system showing how what you’re about to eat has gone “from the farm to your table,” explains Tan.

Well, that’s the plan.

Scan to verify

Singapore-based Tan, 42, hopes to have the halal blockchain up and running by July or August this year.

The CEO and co-founder got the idea around four years ago, motivated in part by recurring incidents s involving fake halal food.

Azman Ivan Tan / Photo credit: WhatsHalal

“What they did was, they just put any [halal] sticker on,” Tan tells Tech in Asia, which meant Muslims ended up eating non-halal food. It’s a problem that goes far beyond succulent lamb chops or prime steaks – it extends to all kinds of processed foods, drinks, medicines, and cosmetics. Not even sweet snacks are safe, as they may contain pork-based glycerin.

Tan thought that a solution lay in an approach that keeps data secure while sharing it with the world – something that blockchain technology soon made possible.

He launched the WhatsHalal app in 2017. It features a roster of halal meats for sale from a handful of participating stores in a few cities, which can either be delivered or picked up from the vendor.

“In future, our users can scan the product itself to see if it came from a halal source,” Tan says.

Once the WhatsHalal store is backed by the blockchain system later this year, it will expand to 15 markets: Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Vietnam, the Philippines, India, France, and the US.

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