SHAFAQNA – A UK supermarket chain has been forced to apologise to Muslims after it labelled black pudding ‘halal’ despite it containing pork.
The product, which contains pork blood and skin, was stocked at Aldi supermarkets with a UK Health Code that labelled it suitable for Muslims, reported the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper.
It was supplied by Scottish company Punjab Pakora, which produces several Indian dishes.
But angry customers contacted Aldi alerting them to the mistake and prompting the supermarket chain to issue a public apology and take the product off the shelves.
An Aldi spokesman was quoted as saying the company was investigating the incident. The spokesman said: “Regarding the Punjab Pakora Black Pudding Pakora (Supplied by Punjab Pakora), we have now investigated this matter with the supplier, who has advised that the packaging was incorrectly labelled as Halal-certified and the problem is currently being rectified.
“We apologise for any confusion caused by this unfortunate, isolated matter.
“While this is not a food safety or legal compliance issue, any customers who are not satisfied are welcome to return their purchase to store for a full refund.”
Punjab Pakora’s owners Kushal and Vinita Duggal reportedly explained that the manager in charge of what is printed on product labels did not notice the mistake.
“The mistake happened when we did the print run and unfortunately our manager failed to spot this error and got approval for printing.
“We have been trying our very best and hardest [to correct the issue] and have contacted different clients involved and have sorted the issue.”
But many Muslims expressed their outrage at what had happened. TheDaily Mail quoted a customer named as Manahil Khan as saying: “This is absolutely outrageous and I am deeply offended by this. I am pretty sure many others of the Muslim community are too.
“It is demoralizing and goes against ones religious morals and scripture…. and I speak on behalf of every Muslim and human that does not deserve to be misled by any sort of false claim of halal food or lies about what we consume.”