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Muslim pupils at some British schools are being urged to boycott school meals containing New Zealand meat over fears it may not be halal - killed in accordance with religious custom.
The Lancashire Council of Mosques has written to all mosques in the county, urging parents to ensure their children stick to vegetarian options or take a packed lunch, the Lancashire Telegraph reported.
The Lancashire County Council switched its supplies for school lunch meat to New Zealand meat - prompting fears that halal standards might not be met with the new products.
County council bosses have responded to the Muslim community's concerns by taking halal meat off the menus of all its primary and secondary schools until "all parties" were satisfied with the new supplier.
The Halal Food Authority (HFA), a voluntary organisation set up in 1994 to monitor and regulate red meat and poultry, had approved the new supplier's products.
But Salim Mulla, secretary of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, said: "We have suspicions that it may not be halal ... there is not enough known about the origins of the meat and the fact that it has been checked by the HFA is not good enough."
The concept of halal is central to the Islamic religion. In relation to food it means that the meat has been blessed and killed in accordance with Islamic law.
Masood Khawaja, president of the HFA, said: "It is preposterous to say that the supplier is unfit and that our checks are unsuitable. These allegations are unfounded."
New Zealand meat exporters are already caught up in a row over halal certification with Malaysia.
Malaysia blocked imports from New Zealand - a major exporter of halal meat to Malaysia - in 2005, apparently after setting a differing standard to the long-established halal certification of meat killed mainly for the Middle East trade.
The New Zealand High Commissioner in Malaysia, David Kersey, said talks by the two governments about halal matters were making "good progress".
- NZPA
