Is Cheese Halal?

proud2bemuslim

proud2bemuslim

ALLAH HU AKBAR
:salam2:

A sister in my office told me that not all cheese is Halal. Does anyone know which cheese are halal and which are not. And why not all cheese are halal. Jazak Allah.
 
M

MubarekMuslimah

Junior Member
Salaams

I understand that cheese that contains animal rennet is not halal - as the rennet is taken from the stomach of new born cows (eurgh) and these cows are not slaughtered in a halal way.

Check the ingredients - you can get cheese that is vegetarian and will say so with a symbol and doesn't contain animal rennet. It tasts just as nice! ( i love cheese...:) ) or you may even be able to get cheese that is certified halal - we don't have it where I live (UK) but in other places, insha'allah

You should also watch out for animal rennet in all other dairy products or things that contain dairy products (like chocolate!! ) or crisps - for instance - Walkers Cheese and Onion used to include animal rennet - they adapted the recipe some time ago and now they don't and are certified fit for vegetarians.

Salaams
 
Dawoodi

Dawoodi

Junior Member
question

MubarekMuslimah said:
Salaams

I understand that cheese that contains animal rennet is not halal - as the rennet is taken from the stomach of new born cows (eurgh) and these cows are not slaughtered in a halal way.

Check the ingredients - you can get cheese that is vegetarian and will say so with a symbol and doesn't contain animal rennet. It tasts just as nice! ( i love cheese...:) ) or you may even be able to get cheese that is certified halal - we don't have it where I live (UK) but in other places, insha'allah

You should also watch out for animal rennet in all other dairy products or things that contain dairy products (like chocolate!! ) or crisps - for instance - Walkers Cheese and Onion used to include animal rennet - they adapted the recipe some time ago and now they don't and are certified fit for vegetarians.

Salaams
Click to expand...

sw

wow! i didnt know that...what about if the cheese is made with rennet from halal slaughtered animals? is it halal?

sw.
 
M

MubarekMuslimah

Junior Member
salaams

then it is halal I think - the rennet is not blood or any other part of the animal that we can't eat - the rennet is a hormone only prevalent (present) in the stomach of new-born calves (cows) - adult cows don't have it.

Slaughtering a baby cow just for this is pretty :( though - at least if its slaughterd halal way it is done properly in Allah swt's name, the blood is drained and the rest of the cow will be used as meat insha'allah.

Salaams
 
NewMuslim

NewMuslim

Slave of Allah
Assalaamu Alaykum
Many cheeses in the U.S.A. do use rennet. Some even use a pepsin enzyme developed from the stomach of pigs (rendering it Haraam no matter what).

Philadelphia Cream Cheese (and all other cheese under that brand name) doesn't use rennet or that pepsin enzyme. The same is true for Kraft Neufchatel Cheese.

According to: http://www.natural-connection.com/resource/tnc_reference_library/cheese.html

Cheeses containing rennet (I.E.non-vegetarian and perhaps Haraam, contact info listed)

Blue Castello, Blue Note. Tholstrup Cheese USAInc., 1 Mountain Blvd., P.O. Box 4194, Warren,NJ 07059-0194, (201) 756-6320. These varieties contain rennet.

Bresse-Bleu Brie and Bresse-Bleu Bleu Cheeses. These contain rennet. Address listed above.

Cabot Cheddar Cheese. Cabot Creamery,previously listed. Only the cheddar cheese uses rennet. The Monterey Jack and Vitalait use microbial enzymes.

Dorman-Roth Foods. Dorman-Roth Foods, 14 Empire Blvd., Moonachie, NJ 07074, (201)440-3600. From their letter, "We are unable to state with certainty that any particular cheese does not contain animal enzymes."

Fleur de Lait. We did not receive a response from Fleur de Lait, but from reading labels determined that the two cheeses mentioned above are vegetarian. We are assuming that the rest of their products contain animal enzymes.

Kraft Cheese Products. Most Kraft cheeses may contain rennet. Exceptions and address listed under vegetarian cheese section.

Land O'Lakes Cheeses. Land O'Lakes Inc., P.O.Box 116, Minneapolis, MN 55440, (800)328-4155. `We can not guarantee that any of our cheeses do not contain rennet.'

Maytag Blue Cheese. Maytag Dairy Farms, Box 806, Newtown, IA 50208, (800) 247-2458,(515) 792-1133. All of the Maytag cheeses contain rennet.

Mozzarella Company. Most of their products contain rennet. Those which don't are listed under the vegetarian cheese section. Address previously listed.

Pollio Cheese Products. Except for those mentioned above, their products contain animal enzymes.

Saga Soft Ripened Cheeses. Tholstrup Cheese USA Inc., 1 Mountain Blvd., P.O. Box 4194,Warren, NJ 07060-0194, (201) 756-6320. All of the Saga varieties contain rennet.

Tolko Specialty Cheeses. Tholstrup Cheese, 1Mtn. Blvd., Box 4194, Warren, NJ 07060-0194,(201) 756-6320. Imported cheeses fromDenmark, all of which contain rennet.

Tillamook Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese. These contain animal rennet. Address previously listed. [updated 6/4/2005 by The Natural Connection]

Vegetarian Cheeses (I.E. Halal)

Bresse Bleu Montrachet. Bresse Bleu Inc., N. 2002 Hwy 26,Watertown, WI 53094, (414) 261-3036. The Montrachet varieties are their only products which are vegetarian.

Cabot Monterey Jack and Vitalait Cheese. Cabot Creamery,PO Box 128, Cabot, VT 05647, (802) 563-2231. These products use microbial systems. Their cheddar uses rennet.

Coach Farm Goat's Milk Cheeses. The Coach Farm, RR1 Box 445, Pine Plains, NY 12567, (518) 398-5325. All of their cheese products are vegetarian, without preservatives.

Falbo Cheese. Falbo Cheese, 1931 N. 15th Ave., Melrose Park, IL 60160, 800-982-0753. They carry a wide variety of Italian cheeses, all of which use only microbial systems and are therefore vegetarian. Available in grocery stores.

Fleur de Lait Neufchatel Cheese with Garden Vegetables, and Neufchatel Cheese with Herb and Spice. Fleur de Lait Foods,Ltd., 254 Custer Ave., New Holland, PA 17557. We have determined these two varieties of Fleur de Lait cheeses to be vegetarian from reading their labels.

Kraft Domestic Swiss and Kraft Neufchatel Cheese. Kraft General Foods, Kraft Court, Glenview, IL 60025. These are their only two products that are vegetarian.

Lifetime Natural and Lifetime Fat Free Cheeses. Lifeline Food Co., Inc., 426 Orange St., Seaside, CA 93955, (408) 899-5040. All their products use only microbial enzymes.

Morningland Dairy Organic Raw Milk Natural Cheeses.Morningland Dairy, Rt. 1, Box 188B, Mountain View, MO 65548,(417) 469-3817. All of their 13 varieties of cheeses are vegetarian, organic and contain no artificial colors. Mail order.

Mozzarella Company Caciotas, Montasio and Pecorino. Mozzarella Company, 2944 Elm St, Dallas, TX 75226, (214) 741-4072. These are their varieties which contain no animal rennet. Cow's milk and goat's milk cheeses available.

Organic Valley Farms Organic Cheeses. Organic Valley, Main St.,PO Box 159, La Farge, WI 54639, (608) 625-2602. Organic Valley offers both raw milk and regular cheeses, all of which are vegetarian and organic.

Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese. Kraft General Foods, Kraft Court,Glenview, IL 60025.

Pollio Mozzarella and Pollio Ricotta Cheese. Pollio Dairy Products Corporation, 120 Mineola Blvd.,Mineola, NY 11501, (516) 741-8000. These are probably available in regular grocery stores.

Shalom Farms Organic Cheese. Shalom Farms,RD 1, Box 1628A, Bethel, PA 19507, (717)933-4880. All their cheeses are vegetarian. Raw milk and regular cheese.

Tillamook Cheese (except for the Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese). Tillamook County Creamery Association, PO Box 313, Tillamook, OR 97141. All Cheddar (Medium, Sharp, Special Reserve Extra Sharp, Kosher/Vegetarian, Smoked and Reduced-Fat), Colby, Colby-Jack, Monterey Jack, Mozzarella, Pepper-Jack, Reduced-Fat Monterey Jack, Shred Blends and Swiss cheeses use microbial rennet.. [updated 6/4/2005 by The Natural Connection]

Walnut Acres Cheeses (except for Baby Swiss). Walnut Acres,Walnut Acres Rd, Penns Creek, PA 17862, 800-433-3998 to place an order, 800-344-9025 for a catalog. Walnut Acres is an organic farm which has a wide variety of both cow's milk and goat's milk cheeses available by mail order. The Baby Swiss variety is being discontinued.






All Soy Cheeses are vegetarian (I.E. Halal). Kosher Cheese may or may not contain rennet (I.E. may or may not be Haraam). Be sure to read the labels.

Contact the companies producing Cheese to ask if they could stop using rennet and start using "Microbial Enzymes" (a bacterial enzyme that's not from animal or vegetables. If they use this, then your cheese will be Halal. Be sure to mention the value of your dollar and the 4,000,000 + Muslims' (in the U.S.A) dollars that are at risk!
 
B

blue

Junior Member
I heard the cheese used at pizza hut isn't halal. On a side note, a quick way of finding out if products have any animal ingredients is to check the cholesterol content, as cholesterol is always animal-derived.
 
muharram23

muharram23

New Member
Staff member
cheese halal

salamu alaykum,
may ALlah s.v.a reward all the muslims who implement quran and sunnah in their lives and spread to others. I would like to give a small tiny advice :) to my brothers and sisters, that if they are answering someone's questions on behalf of halal/haram, that they give proof from the quran and sunnah. This will benefit all of us, as well as there will not be room for innovations into the religion. Our opinions should not come before quran and sunnah. Some scholars have said that permitting something that is haram is less severe than forbidding something that is hallal. Otherwise, we might be making the deen hard on people. Wallahu alem

wassalamu alaykum
 
muharram23

muharram23

New Member
Staff member
muharram23 said:
salamu alaykum,
may ALlah s.v.a reward all the muslims who implement quran and sunnah in their lives and spread to others. I would like to give a small tiny advice :) to my brothers and sisters, that if they are answering someone's questions on behalf of halal/haram, that they give proof from the quran and sunnah. This will benefit all of us, as well as there will not be room for innovations into the religion. Our opinions should not come before quran and sunnah. Some scholars have said that permitting something that is haram is less severe than forbidding something that is hallal. Otherwise, we might be making the deen hard on people. Wallahu alem

wassalamu alaykum
Click to expand...


Gelatin is Halaal - Please Read!!!

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As-Salaamu Alaykum wa Rahmatullah everyone,

My dear brothers and sisters, I see there is a lot of confusion has arisen around the subject of what is considered Halaal and what is considered Haraam when it comes to food and have taken the time to shed some light on the subject.

Unfortunately many Muslims commit dhulm (oppression) against themselves by labeling certain foods ‘haraam’ while they are actually halaal and perfectly permissible to eat.

The fact of the matter is: Gelatin is Halaal.

You may be asking "how could he say this when gelatin has come from a pig?"

Please take the time to read the following article which has been based on a lesson given by Shaykh Muhammad Bazmool, and a fatwa given by Shaykh Al-Albaanee. InshaAllah this will clear up any misconceptions on the issue. The proof is given below.

Gelatin: Halaal or Haraam?
http://calltoislam.com/index.php?opt...99&Item id=42

Istihala is when something becomes pure. It was najis (impure) but it is now taahir (pure). A good example would be maitah (animal carcass): it is najis, but should it be burned and become ashes, or decompose and become earth, then it is taahir, it is no longer najis. This can happen with dung or faeces or whatever. Whenever something changes from one property to another, then the ruling likewise changes.

Example: Let us say that someone uses the fat of a dead animal to make soap. That fat is najis, but the chemical change that it was put through makes it taahir.

Ibn Hazm put it concisely when he said,

"Ruling upon an object is upon what it is named (what it is), if the name (what it is) changes then so does the ruling."

He also mentioned in his book of fiqh, Al-Muhalla: "If the quality of the substance of naturally impure objects changes the name which was given to it so that it is no more applicable to it and it is given a new name which is given to a pure object, so it is no more an impure thing. It becomes a new object, with a new rule."

Meaning that if the natural composition of a substance changes to another substance of a different composition, so much so that you can no longer call the new substance by the name of what it was -- ruling upon that substance changes too.

Proof/Example 1:
The companions (Radiya ‘Llahu 'anhum) used to eat a cheese that came from the land of the disbelievers. In that cheese was a part of the calf which was slaughtered by the disbelievers in a way that is not in accordance with Islaam. The companions knew this, but they also knew that the prohibition was upon the calf, what is directly from the calf, and what could be properly called part of the calf; the ruling is not upon that which you cannot identify as part of the calf nor is it called any longer such-and-such part of the calf. This is called istihala.

Proof/Example 2:
Another proof from the Sunnah: The Prophet (sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam) forbade making vinegar out of wine, but he said that if you should come across vinegar that has been made from wine then it is halaal.

Why?

The ruling is upon what the object is, and not what it was. Wine is haraam; vinegar is not, and before the wine became an intoxicant, it was halaal. Why? Because it was fruit before that.

Proof/Example 3:
Allaah says in the Qur'an:


"And surely there is a lesson for you in the cattle we give you to drink of what is in their bellies from between the faeces and blood, pure milk, wholesome to those who drink it." (16:66)


Allaah is putting forth an example for us of how something pure can come from
something impure.

And we can also use as proof something that we've already gone over. The Prophet (sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam) said that when the hide of maitah (the carrion) is tanned, then it is taahir. He (sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam) gave us a method to purify something which was first impure.

Let us examine things we are familiar with: mono and diglycerides, whey, gluten, emulsifiers, gelatin, and whatever else is on the international haraam list. These by-products sometimes come from animals, pigs even, in which case the ruling on the initial substances is that they are haraam. But the initial substances (e.g. fat, marrow, cartilage, etc.) are put through chemical change so that you no longer can even call it "pig fat" or "animal bone" or "skin" or "cartilage", etc. because it is no longer that, hence it is taahir, it is halaal.

What is gelatin? The Oxford dictionary of science defines it as: "A colorless or pale yellow, water-soluble protein obtained by boiling collagen with water and evaporating the solution. It melts when water is added and dissolves in hot water to form a solution that sets to a gel on cooling." (page 290)

Is this a chemical change or is this not a chemical change? Is it protein any longer? No, it is not.

You are in disbelief so you ask, "But how can it be halaal when it came from something haraam?"

Because of the proofs mentioned above, the ruling is not based upon what it was, the ruling is based upon what it is. A Hanafi scholar, Ibn Abedin gave the example: "the swine which drowns in a salt lake and decomposes and becomes salt itself, is now halaal."

And other Hanafi scholars go on to say: "salt is different from meat and bones. If they become salt, they are salt."

To take the salt example further: salt consists of sodium chloride (NaCl) when together they are the halaal food known as salt, when separated they make up two poisonous substances which are then haraam for consumption.

The ahnaaf (Hanafis) also use as an example the human semen, saying that it is najis, then when it inseminates the egg and becomes a blood clot it is still najis, but when it becomes flesh it is no longer najis. And the ahnaaf are not the only ones who take this position.

The examples are numerous and they extend beyond food: Yesterday a man was kaafir and going towards Hell, today he is Muslim, so what is the ruling upon him? It is based upon what he is today. We must be careful when we call things haraam because it is a form of dhulm (oppression). Scholars have said that it is worse that you make something halaal to haraam rather than making something haraam to halaal.

This deen Allaah has made yusr (easy) let us not make it 'usr (hard).

And Allaah (Subhanahu wa ta'ala) Knows Best.
 
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