Integrity Practices of the Manufacturers in Halal Food Supply Chain1

Dr. Mohd Fuad Mohd Salleh2

fuadsalleh@unisel.edu.my
Kamisah Supian3
kamisah@unisel.edu.my
Faculty of Business, Universiti Selangor, Malaysia.

ABSTRACT
In the last decade, the demand for halal food has increased significantly. The growth of the halal food
demand is expected to provide an opportunity to produce more of halal products, especially food, which is
very crucial for a Muslim in ensuring its authenticity. Recently, halal authenticity has been a major concern
in the food industry. The issues of adulteration of haram or mushbooh ingredients in food productions (i.e.
non-compliance to health or safety standards ), non-compliance with Shariah law and contamination with
non-halal ingredients need serious attention by all parties involved. This includes food safety, healthy,
nutrition and quality. This paper attempts to understand the halal food integrity practices and its challenges
along the halal supply chain. The challenges of halal food integrity practices are how to preserve the
integrity of halal food along its supply chain that complies with the general principles of Shariah law and
zero contamination with non-halal materials/ingredients. Generally, integrity refers to the consistency
which synonymous with goodness, such as to do the right thing and to do things right. Halal integrity is to
assure the products are being sourced, produced, processed, stored and disseminated parallel with the
Islamic values of high quality and safety. To uphold the integrity of halal food is a very challenging task as
contamination with non-halal ingredient at one point will disturb the whole halal chain. Thus, the
adherence to halal integrity practices is important to be preserved and sustained through the activities of
compliance to the law and standards, control, coordination, cooperation, communication and commitment
along the supply chain by the manufacturers. As Malaysia to be a world halal hub, preserving and
sustaining the integrity of halal food is an obligatory perspective in order to obtain the trust of the
consumers. Therefore, the integrity of halal food should be monitored to sustain the authenticity of halal
food.
Keywords: Halal food, integrity, halal food supply chain, challenges
Corresponding author address: Faculty of Business, Universiti Selangor, Jln Zirkon A 7/A, Seksyen 7,
40000 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

INTRODUCTION
ASEAN with 608.383 million population is offering a huge market potential for food
business. Malaysia and Indonesia have about 276.1 million population combined which is
enough to offer a promising business potential. Both countries represent 45.4 percent of
608 million populations in ASEAN and contributed up to 51 percent (US1,183,076b =
RM4,377,381b) of ASEAN GDP. Malaysia and Indonesia represent more than 50 percent
Muslim in ASEAN which offer a promising halal food industries potential to be ventured.
Malaysia and Indonesia can play major role to propel ASEAN to become third economic
1

Public Lecture at Universitas Islam Bandung on 21 st. August 2015.

Dean and Associate Professor at Faculty of Business, Universiti Selangor.
3
Lecturer at Faculty of Business, Universiti Selangor.
2

force in ASEAN because these two countries represent about 51 percent of ASEAN GDP.
This paper looks into the process of integrity practices of the manufacturers in halal food
supply chain in halal food production. It is important to be studied as both countries
currently are producing food for local and regional consumption. The potential to expend
food production between two countries is great since Malaysia and Indonesia have very
strong economics and political and economic ties.
With the nominal GDP of US305,033b in March 2015 down by US70b compared to
375.633b in 2014, Malaysia was 29th largest economy by nominal the 3rd. largest economy
in ASEAN after Indonesia (878,043) and Thailand (365,966b), is in the process to
transform its economy from middle income to higher income. Malaysian government is
currently structuring its economy with high added value based on creativity and innovative
values. But the government plan to achieve high income nation will not be easy if integrity
issue is not being resolved.
Integrity is a widely used concept in the business ethics, organizational behavior and human
resource management, and most of the time, it is a cited concept in organizational studies.
Despite an increase in academic publications in the knowledge area of the halal industry for
the past few years, there are limited numbers of academic publications discussing the area of
halal food supply chain and halal integrity. The ability to uphold the integrity of halal food
means that the flow of material and information within a company and/or through a supply
chain can obtain the trust of the consumers of halal food authenticity. Islamic dietary laws
prohibit the consumption of alcohol, pork, blood, dead meat, and meat which has not been
slaughtered according to Islamic rulings. These laws are binding and must be observed at all
times.
The complexity of the supply chain has contributed various integrity issues related to halal
food. The issues of quality, law and regulation, safety and production itself have difficulties
to be monitored and controlled in ensuring the halalness of the food. A plethora of food
scandals such as the horsemeat scandal (UK), melamine milk scandal (China), meet Taco Bell scandal (California) and pig-DNA scandal (Malaysia) has shaken public
confidence in food integrity. In food industry, pork and its derivatives are among the most
widely used materials which research had been done and found 185 by-product came from
only a pig (cnn.com, 2010).
The food scandals put the integrity of halal food on the agenda. The outcome of these
scandals has acquired the need of maintaining and sustaining the integrity of halal food. The
cases exemplify how concerns are no longer limited to the better quality product and safer
food which has been addressed broadly by literatura, practices, legislation, regulations and
standards (Marucheck et al., 2011; Roth et al., 2008). Integrity practices in halal food can
be useful to be part of a competitive strategy and to increase company coordination and

harmonization in food supply chains.

The purpose of this study was to carry out a literature review of the integrity practices to
identify whether a common theoretical framework with respect to implementation of food
integrity practices exists. Several different definitions of integrity are currently being
applied. The integrity practices field has developed in different directions, and several of the
integrity studies in the food industry cover different scientific fields and apply different
scientific methods. Integrity practices are an interdisciplinary research field, and it spans the
natural sciences as well as the social sciences.
METHODS
First, the literature review started with identifying the theoretical contributions to integrity
practices. Then, the qualitative and quantitative studies of food integrity practices were
identified, after which an attempt was made to place these studies in their appropriate
scientific fields. Finally, various methods applied in food integrity practices studies were
identified. The literature review was carried out by using the databases such as Emerald,
ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar. The following combinations of terms were used in the
literature search such as integrity* + food, integrity* + definition, integrity* + halal +
food, integrity* + halal + food + supply chain management, Integrity* + food +
challenges, and integrity* + food + method.
RESULT AND DSCUSSON
The main findings of the theoretical contribution on integrity practices of halal food are
presented here, including definitions of integrity, halal food supply chain and the challenges
of halal food integrity practices.
Definitions of integrity
Integrity is often described as personal consistency and synonymous with goodness (Koehn,
2005). According to Doug Ross (2005), integrity is doing the right thing and doing things
the right way. It posits that integrity requires responsible action. The word integrity is from
the Latin word, integritas which means wholeness, conscientiousness, soundness,
completeness, coherence, rightness or purity (Gosling & Huang, 2009; Palanski &
Yammarino, 2007; Worden, 2003).There is little agreement in the literature about the
meaning and scope of integrity (Gosling & Huang, 2009; Palanski & Yammarino, 2009).
Palanski & Yammarino (2007) identified three significant problems in the study of integrity
that are, too many definitions, too little theory and too few rigorous empirical studies. The
different meaning of integrity can be classified into five general categories: consistency of
words and actions, wholeness, consistency in adversity, being true to oneself, and
moral/ethical behavior (Palanski & Yammarino, 2007). Thus, the integrity of a halal food is
to seek and obtain a desirable outcome by maintaining and sustaining a consistent and
unambiguous action, values, methods, measures, and principles by giving the assurance of
halal products to consumers.
Halal food supply chain

Several published studies describing halal food supply chain have been run aground. Halal
food supply chain is the management of a halal network with the objective to extend the
halal integrity from the source to the point of consumer purchase (Tieman, van der Vorst, &
Ghazali, 2012). Tieman (2011) argues that the foundation of halal supply chain
management is determined by direct contact with haram, risk of contamination and
perception of the Muslim consumer. The risk will start from the development of the food
goes to the marketplace as the image of food being perceived as halal upon consumption
(Tieman et al., 2012).
The halal food supply chain acquires the entire network must comply with halal dietary
laws at all appropriate stages to ensure the integrity of halal food from farm to fork. Halal
supply chain model in figure 1 illustrates the flow of the product to the market with the
commitment from top management to ensure all parties involved must comply with the
halal policy and its objectives; coordination, control, cooperation and communication
across the halal supply chain i.e. logictics, resources, process and network (Tieman et al.,
2012). Thus, the halal supply chain is incorporation of business process and activities from
various links of the supply chain by sustaining the halal integrity that in line with Islamic
law.

Figure 1: Halal supply chain model (Tieman et al., 2012)

Challenges of halal food integrity practices
The integrity of halal food supply chains is becoming an increasing concern and challenging
in vast business network in the food supply chain (Lam & Alhashmi, 2008; Tieman et al.,
2012; Zailani, Arrifin, Wahid, Othman, & Fernando, 2010). In the halal food industries, the
following challenges have been identified.
Regulations and standards. Over past seven annual conventions of the World Halal Forum
(WHF), standardization of the halal certificate has become a major issue discussion. With
the rising number of halal users anxious about the legitimacy of their purchases, many
producers and exporters realized the demand for authentic halal certification of the
products and services offered to this market segment. The variety of standards creates
confusion within the marketplace, particularly in the matter of authenticity. In Malaysia, the
halal food production must comply with the MS1500:2009 in obtaining the halal
certification, which issued by the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM).
All halal food stuffs produced locally and/or imported should comply with JAKIM approval
and verification of halal certification.

Internal and external responsibilities. The integrity of halal food should be preserved by
fulfilling the Shariah law along its supply chain. The integration of internal (firm) and
external (suppliers) could contribute to customer satisfaction (Yu, Jacobs, Salisbury, &
Enns, 2013). The level of customer satisfaction could be increasing once their trust being
fulfilled. Thus, firm and supplier should be committed to ensuring the workflow of halal
food always comply with Shariah law. Willingness to provide halal dedicated assets,
willingness to apply halal certification for raw materials/ ingredients and willingness to send
the workers to halal food training are among the commitment of the firm and supplier to
uphold the integrity of the halal food supply chain.
CONCLUSIONS
From the literature review, it is clear that differences do exist between the definitions of
integrity. The literature review has shown that no common understanding of the definitions
and principles of integrity exist, nor is there a common theoretical framework with respect
to implementation of food integrity practices.
It is important for halal certified companies to look beyond their production, ingredients,
and extends halal to the entire supply chain in ensuring that the process of halal food in its
supply chain are in compliance with Shariah and meet the requirements of their target
Muslim market. Further empirical research is needed to better understand and measure the
integrity practices of halal food at different perspective, i.e. logistics, which play an
important vehicle along the food supply chain.
Further academic research is also required in order to better understand the halal integrity
practices in organizing halal supply chains for different markets. Are there differences
between the halal supply chain management requirement, i.e. between Muslim and nonMuslim countries? Finally, there is a need for a halal supply chain model that is able to
describe and optimize halal supply chains. This would help the halal certified food industry
to move towards a supply chain approach more on halalan-toyibban.

REFERENCES
Gosling, M., & Huang, H. J. (2009). The fit between integrity and integrative social
contracts theory. Journal of Business Ethics, 90, 407417.
Koehn, D. (2005). Integrity as a Business Asset. Journal of Business Ethics, 58(1), 125
136. doi:10.1007/sl0551-005-1391-x
Lam, Y., & Alhashmi, S. M. (2008). Simulation of Halal Food Supply Chain with
Certification System: A Multi-Agent System Approach. In PRIMA08: Proceedings of the
11th Pacific Rim International Conference on Multi-agents: Intelligent Agents and Multiagent System, Hanoi, Vietnam, 15-16 December. (pp. 259266).

Marucheck, A., Greis, N., Mena, C., & Cai, L. (2011). Product safety and security in the
global supply chain: Issues, challenges and research opportunities. Journal of Operations
Management, 29(7-8), 707720. doi:10.1016/j.jom.2011.06.007
Palanski, M. E., & Yammarino, F. J. (2007). Integrity and Leadership: clearing the
conceptual
confusion.
European
Management
Journal,
25(3),
171184.
doi:10.1016/j.emj.2007.04.006
Palanski, M. E., & Yammarino, F. J. (2009). Integrity and leadership: A multi-level
conceptual
framework.
The
Leadership
Quarterly,
20(3),
405420.
doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.03.008
Roth, A. V., Tsay, A. A., Pullman, M. E., & Gray, J. V. (2008). Unraveling the food supply
chain: strategic insights from China and the 2007 recalls. Journal of Supply Chain
Management, 44(1), 2239.
Tieman, M. (2011). The application of Halal in supply chain management: in-depth
interviews. Journal of Islamic Marketing, 2(2), 186195. doi:10.1108/17590831111139893
Tieman, M., van der Vorst, J. G. a. J., & Ghazali, M. C. (2012). Principles in halal supply
chain
management.
Journal
of
Islamic
Marketing,
3(3),
217243.
doi:10.1108/17590831211259727
Worden, S. (2003). The role of integrity as a mediator in strategic leadership: a recipe for
reputational capital. Journal of Business Ethics, 46(1), 3144.
Yu, W., Jacobs, M. a., Salisbury, W. D., & Enns, H. (2013). The effects of supply chain
integration on customer satisfaction and financial performance: An organizational learning
perspective. International Journal of Production Economics, 146(1), 346358.
doi:10.1016/j.ijpe.2013.07.023
Zailani, S., Arrifin, Z., Wahid, N. A., Othman, R., & Fernando, Y. (2010). Halal traceability
and halal tracking systems in strengthening halal food supply chain for food industry in
Malaysia (a review). Journal of Food Technology, 8(3), 7481.
Ross, D. (2005). Why develop integrity? Retrieved on May 6, 2013, from
http://www.principledynamics.com/main.cfm?
CFID=2078704&CFTOKEN=8c5f592db82cf3d5-7927BE37-EE2D-866E3AA2047FCF4147D8
Anonymous (2010). From one pig bacon and 184 others things. CNN.COM. Retrieved
on 20 March 2013, from http://www.edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/10/24/meindertsma.tr
acing.pig/