What Is the Halal Logo?
Published by HalalBoss, an independent register on 6 July 2026
The halal logo is the certification mark a halal authority or certification body places on an approved product to signal it passed a halal audit. Malaysia's official JAKIM mark is a green scalloped circle carrying an eight-point star with the Arabic word for halal, HALAL MALAYSIA, a standard reference, and a certificate number. The logo itself proves nothing; it is only as trustworthy as the body that issued it.
The halal logo is the certification mark that a halal authority or certification body prints on a product, package, or premises to show it passed a halal audit against a published standard. It is a claim made visible: a small graphic that stands in for a certificate, an auditor’s visit, and an issuing body’s name. The logo itself certifies nothing. What gives it force is the certificate and the body behind it, which is why the same crescent or star can be trustworthy on one pack and meaningless on another.
This directory lists the certification bodies that hold JAKIM recognition, so this guide explains what the mark is and how to read one, starting with Malaysia’s official halal logo.
How to read the JAKIM Malaysia halal mark
Malaysia’s official halal logo, issued by the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM), is a green circular mark with a defined set of elements. At the centre sits an eight-point star, the Rub el Hizb, carrying the Arabic word for halal, حلال. The Roman word HALAL reads across the middle, ringed by MALAYSIA at the top of the circle and its Arabic form, ماليزيا, at the bottom, with two five-point stars separating the two. The circle has a scalloped, gear-like outer edge, and the whole mark reads in green, the colour halal certifiers lean on worldwide.
Two lines of text finish the mark. The upper line names the Malaysian Standard the certification was granted under, for example MS 1500 for halal food. The lower line carries a reference number drawn from the halal application file, the detail that turns a decorative logo into a checkable record. On physical goods a holographic sticker is often added as a further anti-counterfeit layer. The mark is protected in law under the Trade Description (Use of Expression “Halal”) Order, so copying or misusing it is an offence rather than a design choice.
The certificate number is what makes a logo checkable
A halal logo without a traceable number is only a picture. The reference number printed under the JAKIM mark is the link between the graphic and JAKIM’s own register: it lets anyone confirm that the holder name, the product scope, and the validity dates behind the mark are real and current. The logo points you to the record; the number lets you pull it. Our guide on how to verify a halal certificate walks through that lookup step by step, and the same missing number is the first thing to check when you want to spot a fake halal certificate.
How certification-body marks work
The JAKIM mark is one of many. Every certification body runs its own logo: IFANCA in the United States uses a crescent-M, the Halal Food Authority and the Halal Monitoring Committee mark meat in the United Kingdom, MUIS certifies in Singapore, and BPJPH now issues Indonesia’s state mark. Each of these is a distinct certification mark tied to a distinct body, standard, and register. There is no single global halal logo, because there is no single global halal regulator, and marks vary in shape from a plain crescent to a full circular seal.
That is why a mark cannot be read in isolation. A genuine mark tells you three things: which body audited the product, which standard it was measured against, and where the certificate can be checked. A mark that names no body, cites no standard, and resolves to no register is a self-declared claim, not a certification, however convincing the calligraphy looks. The logo is the signpost; the body, the standard, and the number are the substance it points to.
Why the mark is only as good as the body behind it
The trust in any halal logo rests entirely on the certifier that issued it, and on whether the market you are buying in accepts that certifier. A private body’s mark is not weaker in principle than a national authority’s; what matters is recognition. In Malaysia, imported goods may be described as halal only when a body JAKIM has recognised certified them, so an overseas certifier’s logo carries weight for Malaysian trade only once that body appears on JAKIM’s list. Our guide on what JAKIM recognition means explains how a certifier earns that status, and every body in this directory has already cleared it. Read the logo, then read the body behind it: the second check is the one that counts.