DAVAO CITY — The opening of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Halal Verification Laboratory in Davao City will boost the city’s bid as a halal hub not only in the country, but also in the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines-East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).
This will also open more opportunities for Davao City as halal products have a huge market, especially in the Middle East.
DOST assistant regional director for technical support services Mirasol Domingo said Davao entrepreneurs who are exporting or going to explore the halal food business should grab the opportunity now that the Halal Verification Laboratory has opened.
“With the laboratory, they can really test their products and the buying public will be assured that the food they buy has the halal certified sticker,” she said.
On Friday, DOST opened the laboratory as part of the implementation of Republic Act No. 10817 or the “Philippine Halal Export Development and Promotion Act of 2016.”
DOST regional director Dr. Anthony Sales said the facility will serve as a laboratory processing facility which can be used by the manufacturers for halal certification.
“We can serve as third-party laboratory for halal producers to make sure that there are no ‘haram’ contaminants in their products,” he said.
Under the certification process, the producers need to have a Halal Assurance System to ensure there are no contaminants on their product.
“They (manufacturers) can come to us and have their products checked,” he said.
He said the facility has the state-of-the-art equipment that will ensure that products to be checked are well analyzed.
Services offered in the laboratory are Porcine DNA Detection, Alcohol Content Determination, and Amino Acid Profiling.
Porcine DNA Detection is the test method that will determine the presence or absence of pork (porcine DNA) using Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR).
Alcohol Content Determination will analyze the concentration of ethanol by using head space Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry.
The sample scopes are fermented foods, sauce, vinegar, herbs, spices, carbonated and premix drinks. Then, the Amino Acid Profiling will determine the relative amount of 17 amino acids in raw collagen, gelatin and capsules by using Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry.
The National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) lauded the opening of the Halal Verification Laboratory in the city. NCMF regional director Norhaida Lumaan said the Muslim communities not just in the Philippines but also abroad, will benefit from this project.
“We Muslims should consume halal not only for ourselves but also for our business,” she said.
Lumaan also encouraged food manufacturers to produce more halal products for export.
With the establishment of the laboratory, she said the NCMF will organize an accredited halal certification body in Davao City.
She said only three such bodies in the Philippines and are located in Manila, Cotabato City, and General Santos City.
Some exporters have their products certified abroad as there are some certifiers in the country that do not follow the standards of Muslim countries in the Middle East.
Earlier, Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio expressed optimism about the prospects of the city’s halal products with the opening of the lab.
“The launch of the Halal Verification Laboratory is envisioned to increase the profitability of halal products from Davao in neighboring cities in Mindanao and in the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines-East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA),” Duterte-Carpio said.
The mayor, who is also the chairperson of the Davao City Halal Industry Development Council, said the acknowledgment of the importance of the halal industry is reflective of the respect for cultural diversity in the country.
“And since Mindanao has the biggest of Muslim communities, it is only appropriate that we are at the forefront in terms of the efforts to ensure that our products are halal-certified,” she said.
“The advent of this Halal Verification Laboratory will also position us in a better advantage in the halal industry in Asia than ever before,” she said. (Armando Fenequito Jr/PNA)
