Halal Certification for Export: A Guide

If you export food, beverages, cosmetics, nutritional supplements, or ingredients to Muslim-majority markets, you will need halal certification for at least some of your products, and the certificate must come from a body the destination authority recognises. Indonesia now mandates halal certification for most consumer products, with imported goods required to comply by October 17, 2026. Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE require certification for meat and animal-derived products, and each keeps its own list of accepted certifiers. The practical question for an exporter is therefore not “should I get certified” but “which certification body will my target markets accept”. This guide walks through the major markets, the recognition problem, and how to pick a certifier that keeps your options open.

Which export markets require halal certification

Indonesia is the strictest of the large markets. Under Law No. 33 of 2014, halal certification became mandatory for food and beverages from medium and large domestic producers on October 18, 2024, when the first phase of implementation ended. For imported products, Government Regulation No. 42 of 2024 granted an extension: imported food, beverages, and related goods must be certified and registered with BPJPH, the government halal agency, no later than October 17, 2026. BPJPH accepts certificates from overseas certification bodies that hold mutual recognition arrangements with it, but the product must still be registered before distribution.

Malaysia requires halal certification for imported meat, poultry, and livestock products. These must come from slaughterhouses approved by both the Department of Veterinary Services and JAKIM, and carry a certificate from a certification body JAKIM recognises. Malaysian authorities have publicly stated there is no compromise on this rule for meat and poultry imports. For other product categories, certification is voluntary but widely expected by retailers and consumers.

Saudi Arabia routes halal control for imported food through the Saudi Food and Drug Authority. The SFDA has directed that importers obtain halal certificates only from bodies recognised by its Halal Center. Certificates are required for products containing meat, animal fats, gelatin, collagen, animal rennet, or enzymes of animal origin, and for any product that carries a halal logo on its packaging.

The UAE runs its halal programme through the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology. Imported meat, poultry, and products with animal-derived ingredients must be accompanied by a halal certificate, and a slaughter certificate where relevant, issued by a body registered with MOIAT. The ministry publishes a database of registered certification bodies, and it also operates an optional Halal National Mark for products that want a stronger in-market signal.

The other Gulf states, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar, apply the GSO 2055 series of standards developed by the GCC Standardization Organization, with recognition of certifiers handled by each national authority.

Singapore treats halal certification as voluntary, but any halal claim on an imported product must be supported by a certificate from a certification body MUIS recognises. MUIS does not certify products manufactured outside Singapore, so recognition of overseas bodies is the entire mechanism. MUIS launched an enhanced recognition framework for these bodies in September 2025.

Market	Authority	What is required
Malaysia	JAKIM (with DVS for meat)	Imported meat and poultry must be certified by a JAKIM-recognised body and come from JAKIM and DVS approved slaughterhouses
Indonesia	BPJPH	Mandatory certification for most consumer products; imports must comply and register by October 17, 2026
Saudi Arabia	SFDA Halal Center	Halal certificates from SFDA-recognised bodies for meat, animal-derived ingredients, and any product bearing a halal logo
UAE	MOIAT	Halal certificate from a MOIAT-registered body for meat, poultry, and animal-derived products
Other GCC states	National authorities	GSO 2055 series applied; recognition of certifiers handled per country
Singapore	MUIS	Voluntary, but halal claims on imports must be backed by a MUIS-recognised certification body

Why the certifier you choose matters

A halal certificate is only as portable as the recognitions behind it. Certification bodies operate in almost every country, but importing authorities do not accept them all. Each authority maintains its own recognition list, and a certificate from a body that is missing from that list carries no weight at the border, however rigorous the body’s work may be.

This is why JAKIM recognition has become a useful benchmark. JAKIM assesses certification bodies around the world against Malaysian requirements before recognising them, and bodies that pass that assessment tend to hold recognitions from other authorities as well. If you want to understand what the assessment involves and why authorities treat it as a signal, read our guide on what JAKIM recognition means.

Recognition is also not permanent. Authorities withdraw it from bodies that fail surveillance audits or let requirements lapse, and a withdrawal can strand exporters mid-contract. Our guide to withdrawn JAKIM recognitions covers how withdrawals happen and what they mean for certificate holders.

How to choose a certification body

Work through this checklist before you sign with any certifier.

• Confirm the body is recognised by the authority in each market you plan to sell into. Check the authority’s own published list, not the certifier’s marketing page.
• Match the scope. A body recognised for slaughtering is not automatically recognised for processed food, cosmetics, or pharmaceuticals. Recognition is granted per scope, and your product must fall inside it.
• Check accreditation. Bodies accredited to ISO/IEC 17065 or an equivalent scheme, or accredited by a national halal accreditation programme, are assessed for competence and impartiality on an ongoing basis. Accreditation and recognition are different credentials; our guide on recognition vs accreditation explains how they fit together.
• Ask which standards the body certifies against. If you are targeting the Gulf, you want GSO 2055-1 in the picture; for Malaysia, MS 1500; for Indonesia, compliance with BPJPH requirements.
• Verify the body’s current status directly with the recognising authority. Lists change, and our guide on how to verify a halal certificate shows where to check.

If a certifier cannot show you exactly which authorities recognise it and for which scopes, keep looking.

The certification process and timeline

The process is broadly similar across certification bodies. You submit an application with product formulations, ingredient specifications, supplier certificates, and process flow documents. The body reviews the documentation, then audits your facility to inspect ingredients, production lines, cleaning procedures, storage, and the traceability records that let an auditor follow any batch back to its halal-certified inputs. If the audit surfaces non-conformities, you correct them and provide evidence. A certification committee then decides, and the certificate is issued, typically valid for a set period with surveillance audits in between.

On duration, published estimates from certification bodies put straightforward packaged products at roughly four to seven weeks from application to certificate, while complex products such as meat lines or items with long ingredient chains run two to three months. The American Halal Foundation, for example, describes the process as generally completed within four to seven weeks when documentation is in order. The biggest variables are the completeness of your ingredient documentation and how quickly you close out audit findings. Sourcing halal-certified inputs before you apply shortens everything.

Standards you will encounter

• MS 1500 is the Malaysian standard for halal food, covering production, preparation, handling, and storage, and it underpins JAKIM certification.
• GSO 2055-1 sets the general halal food requirements applied across the Gulf states, with companion parts covering certification and accreditation bodies.
• OIC/SMIIC 1 is the halal food standard of the Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries, used as a reference by authorities across OIC member states.
• HAS 23000 is the halal assurance system criteria developed in Indonesia, the basis on which Indonesian certification historically operated and a common reference for bodies serving that market.

You do not need to master these documents yourself; you need a certifier that is assessed against the ones your markets require.

What MS 1500 requires

MS 1500 is Malaysia’s national standard for halal food, published by the Department of Standards Malaysia. The current edition, MS 1500:2019, is the third revision and was published in January 2019, replacing the 2009 edition; the standard sets general requirements for the manufacturing and handling of halal food, including nutrient supplements. It is the document JAKIM certification is assessed against, so exporters targeting Malaysia deal with it whether they ever read it or not.

The requirements run wider than ingredients. Beyond sourcing from halal materials, the standard covers processing, handling, packaging, and storage, and places duties on company management to protect halal integrity, including record management and staff participation in the halal system. It also sets requirements on premises and facilities, extended in the 2019 revision to include facilities for Muslim staff.

The 2019 revision changed the standard’s shape as well as its content. The title was shortened to a general requirements standard, new definitions were added for terms such as halal competent authority, non-halal, fatwa, and sertu, and the clause on the slaughtering process, together with its annex, was deleted. Slaughter requirements therefore no longer live inside MS 1500 itself; as covered above, meat and poultry exporters to Malaysia work under the Malaysian halal meat and poultry protocol, with plants approved by JAKIM and the Department of Veterinary Services. If your certifier audits you against MS 1500, confirm it works to the 2019 edition, not a superseded one.

Where to find a recognised certifier

The fastest way to shortlist certifiers is to start from the recognition list rather than from search results, since every certifier’s own website will tell you it is the right choice. This directory lists certification bodies that hold JAKIM recognition, organised so you can browse recognised bodies by country and see each body’s scopes and details. Find the bodies operating in your country, confirm their scope covers your product, then verify their current status with the authorities in each market you plan to enter. That order of operations, recognition first and marketing later, is what keeps a certificate useful at the border.