Davao DOST Halal lab gets intl accreditation, excellence award
DAVAO CITY—THE Halal Verification Laboratory here of the Department of Science and Technology has obtained its accreditation for International Halal Integrity Alliance (IHIA) Global Halal Standard, which grants the laboratory the international seal to certify halal products locally.
The accreditation also came with a separate bestowal from a Malaysian Halal consultation body of an excellence award to cement its integrity and acceptability as a certifying body for Halal items.
The DOST said in a news statement that its accreditation was valid until July 2024. The accreditation and recognition came after the DOST Region 11 laboratory received an overall rating of 95 percent in the Halal compliance audit conducted by Dr. Abdul Rafek Saleh, IHIA executive director.
The DOST Region 11 laboratory primarily tests food and non-food products to ensure that they do not contain Muslim-prohibited contents. It offers services such as ethanol analysis, which tests the presence of ethanol on food and beverages, gelatin analysis, which tests the presence of pork in gelatin products, and porcine DNA detection by RT-PCR, which determines the presence of pork DNA in non-gelatin food products.
The hal al audit reviewed the implementation of laboratory testing and analysis and evaluated the services and processes in the laboratory and their compliance with the international Halal standards set by the IHIA.
On July 8, the Malaysian Halal Consultation and Training (MHCT) agency conferred an excellence award to the DOST laboratory. Dr. Saleh is principal Halal consultant of the MHCT. Dr. Jane Tranquilan is its Halal lead auditor. Dr. Saleh and Dr. Tranquilan conducted a Halal Awareness Training based on the Malaysian Halal standard for the DOST regional laboratory personnel “to elevate the current level of awareness of Halal and ensure practitioners have a complete understanding of facets needed to support the growing Halal industry.
The auditors commended the performance of the DOST Region 11 laboratory and congratulated the agency for the audit results.