The halal meat market in Canada is a growing industry — increasing by almost $1 billion over the past decade.These numbers are based on statistics estimated by the food professor or Sylvain Charlebois', Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University.The lab measured the growth of the halal meat industry — which produces meat slaughtered according to Islamic dietary laws — from 2016 to 2026, finding that it grew from $1.15 billion to $2.11 billion. Charlebois points out on X this market growth, "highlight[s] a market that can no longer be considered niche."On his Substack, Charlebois points out this reflects the growing Muslim population, which was last measured in the 2021 census at 1.8 million..He goes on to mention many halal meat sellers do not necessarily disclose the meat is halal — due to the manufacturing process and the lack of federal policy requiring the need to disclose this.For example, some restaurants sell halal chicken which is exclusively certified and labelled which Charlebois points out, "reflects the unforgiving economics of modern food processing."In many cases where poultry plants are manufacturing halal chicken, they only produce halal.This is simply because these plants are highly automated, capital-intensive and built for producing volume — and maintaining separate operations for halal and conventional chicken production would require more labour, scheduling, storage, sanitation and traceability, ie, more expensive..Operating two systems would simply not be "economically feasible" for some processors.Practically speaking, halal certified production can serve both the halal and other consumers who do not wish to have any religious certification on their meat. From a processor's perspective, keeping with halal production expands the market and the number of consumers reached — while keeping costs lower.Charlebois says the only problem is consumers are not aware they are buying halal products, which presents a "transparency" issue..Under the feds' regulations, food is required to be certified when claiming to be halal; the person or organization must indicate this through the certification by label, package advertisement, or point of sale. However, companies are not required to disclose halal products if they are not claiming to be halal."This does not mean that all Canadian meat is halal. It is not," says Charlebois.Nor is there an alteration in nutritional value, or are processors being exempt from food safety and animal welfare requirements for halal meat.But as Charlebois states, "transparency matters" when distributors are not disclosing meat is halal. ."Muslim families may want assurance that a product meets the standards of a certifier they recognize," and therefore buy halal meat.Other consumers may also care about "stunning practices or simply expect to know how their food was produced."Sometimes sellers may not even be aware of the fact they are selling halal meat — since distributors may not provide that information. One solution for this, Charlebois shares, processors should provide certification information to buyers even when the product will not claim to be halal..Furthermore, "Retailers and restaurant chains that sell only halal-certified meat within a category should communicate that policy clearly," Charlebois continues.He says Canada should remain consistent with halal certification where government can demand "credible auditing, traceability and accessible standards. "Charlebois also adds Canada should be tracking statistics which show how "much meat is processed through halal-certified systems, how much is explicitly labelled halal and how much enters conventional retail or food-service channels without a halal claim.""Clear disclosure, credible certification and practical alternatives," would protect consumer choice without imposing costs on meat processors.
