Halal certification in Malaysia

The regulatory position

JAKIM administers halal certification nationally, with state Islamic religious departments (JAIN) and councils (MAIN) handling applications at state level. Applications are submitted through the MYeHALAL portal and audited against MS 1500:2019, the Malaysian Standard for halal food.

The certification pathway

Applications are submitted through the MYeHALAL portal and audited against MS 1500:2019. State Islamic religious departments and councils are involved in processing depending on where the premises sit. Typical timelines run three to nine months, with food service at the shorter end and manufacturing at the longer.

The work that determines whether you pass first time happens before submission:

• A halal management system your team actually follows, not a binder written for the auditor: a Halal Assurance System for large and medium companies, a lighter Internal Halal Control System for small and micro ones
• Ingredient documentation tracing every input to a supplier with current halal status
• An Internal Halal Committee where you are a large or medium company, named, trained and keeping meeting records
• Physical segregation with documented cleaning and samak procedures where required
• Staff who can explain the halal control points in their own area, unprompted

Guides for each step in Malaysia

The application is made online, handled by JAKIM or a state authority depending on your scheme and address, audited against the standard for your scheme, and renewed on a fixed calendar. Each step has a guide:

• How to apply on MYeHALAL, with the deadlines that reject an application
• Which authority handles your application, JAKIM or your state
• Who you must appoint, from Muslim employees to the Halal Executive
• HAS and IHCS, the management system for your size
• Validity and renewal, and what a lapsed certificate costs you
• Statutory fees by scheme and company size

By sector: restaurants and cafes, hotels and catering, small and micro businesses, slaughterhouses, contract manufacturing, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and logistics. If you are unsure which scheme you belong in, start with which standard applies.

Which Malaysian standard applies to your product

MS 1500:2019 is the food standard, and it is the one most applicants have heard of. It is not the only one: JAKIM certifies against a different standard per scheme, and applying under the wrong one is a delay before the audit even begins.

• MS 1500:2019: food and beverage
• MS 2634:2019: cosmetics
• MS 2424:2019: pharmaceuticals
• MS 2400-1:2019: logistics services
• MS 2400-2:2019: logistics services
• MS 2400-3:2019: logistics services
• MS 2636:2019: medical devices

How we help

We run a gap analysis against MS 1500:2019, build the documentation, train the people responsible for it, and rehearse the audit. The goal is a first-time pass.