Do you like Chocolate? Must Know the Halal Critical Point

Chocolate is a food that is loved by millions of people. Not only small children, adults also love this sweet-tasting snack. What are the contents of chocolate that can make it illegal to consume? Let’s find out what are the critical points of halal chocolate so that it is safe to consume it.

Halal tipping point in chocolate products usually comes from ingredients added to chocolate products such as emulsifiers and flavorings. This additional material is very important in determining the halal status because it can be obtained from animal sources which include non-halal animals.

Alcohol. The content of rhum or flavored essence is often found in imported or foreign-made chocolate. No wonder, sometimes as soon as the chocolate wrapper is opened, the delicious aroma of chocolate can be smelled immediately. It should be noted what percentage of alcohol content.

Lecithin. In general, chocolate uses an emulsifier in its processing. This emulsifier is in the form of lecithin. The thing to watch out for is the type of lecithin used, vegetable or animal lecithin. If vegetable usually use soy lecithin. However, if it’s an animal, usually using pork lecithin because it produces a product that is softer in texture and relatively inexpensive.

Fat. Fat is also a type of emulsifier for chocolate that functions as a stabilizer. As with lecithin, the fats or stabilizers used must be made from plant-based ingredients. The E code listed on the chocolate packaging is not necessarily made from pork, some are derived from vegetable ingredients, namely beef fat.

Milk. Chocolate with a milk flavor variant definitely contains milk. Usually, the milk used is powdered milk. The thing that needs to be considered is what animal the milk comes from and in the process of becoming powdered milk, is it guaranteed to be halal or contaminated with other prohibited substances.

Sugar. Sugar does come from plant-based ingredients, but in the sugar production process, do you use bleach and make the bleaching legal and process legal?

Halal criteria are not only ingredients, but also include the process and packaging. Don’t let the chocolate that we like becomes haram to eat because the production process is contaminated with haram ingredients.

Always check the halal label on chocolate packaging, both domestic and imported chocolate products!