It’s not acceptable to pass off halal food without telling us

It matters; it really does, if meat from animals conscious when killed is being passed off on us by stealth by supermarkets, schools and restaurants. It wouldn’t be just an imposition on the squeamish but a large-scale taking of liberties by the big food retailers which would affect most carnivores in Britain who shop in supermarkets and eat in chain restaurants, viz, the majority of us. The Mail reported today that the default option for many retailers is to sell meat that has been ritually slaughtered according to Islamic requirements. And ritual slaughter can mean not stunning the animal before killing it. What we need to know is: what kind of halal – the Islamic equivalent of kosher – we’re talking about here.

The list of those retailers who sell halal meat without going to the trouble of labelling it includes Waitrose and M&S, which is going to cause the middle class carnivore an acute sort of angst – if you can’t trust Waitrose, well, who can you trust? We know already that in many parts of the country, meat served in schools is halal by default…without informing parents, obviously.