Halal Italia was founded in July 2010 on the initiative of six Muslim professionals with different qualifications, levels of aptitudes and linguistic competence.
Halal Italia is a voluntary Italian certification organization for the most outstanding Italian products in conformity with the rules as to what is permissible (halal) under Islamic law in the agricultural and food, cosmetics, health, pharmaceutical, finance and insurance sectors.
The promotion of high quality Italian products is guaranteed by the rigorous compliance with international halal standards and European regulations regarding the production processes that require certification. Halal Italia also supplies training, commercial assistance and marketing services for the Italian and foreign market to firms interested in developing new products and exploring new opportunities. Thanks to its collaboration with the Ethical Committee for Halal Certification of CO.RE.IS. (Comunità Religiosa Islamica) Italiana, it has been possible to ensure a high level of reliability in the certification service: the Ethical Committee is the independent religious authority that issues the certificates, while the staff of Halal Italia carry out inspections on the premises of participating firms.
The Ethical Committee has prepared an important tool: a booklet containing the rules and regulations for halal certification. This contains an analysis of the Islamic doctrine regarding food and body care that has allowed Halal Italia to implement the guidelines for the certification of the production processes and staff training.
In the next few months it is planned to publish the rules and regulations for pharmaceuticals, which will open up new prospects for the export and the domestic market in a sector where there is a high demand and where the ethical value of the certification constitutes a precious plus point.

Introduction CO.RE.IS. Italiana

For over twenty years, CO.RE.IS. (Comunità Religiosa Islamica) Italiana has represented the religious values of Muslims in harmony with the cultural identity of Italy and Europe. Since 2006, Yahya Pallavicini, Imam of the Al-Wahid Mosque in Milan, has been a member of the Council for Italian Islam; set up by the Ministry of the Interior, this is the only official body catering for the needs of Muslims in Italy.
The fruitful collaboration with, firstly, the minister of the interior Giuseppe Pisanu, then with the minister Giuliano Amato and with the minister Roberto Maroni, is indicative of the trust that is placed in CO.RE.IS. at an institutional level. In recognition of ‘its important contribution to the development of an intercultural and interreligious dialogue over more than twenty years’, in December 2008 the mayor of Milan awarded the Ambrogino prize for civic merit to CO.RE.IS. Italiana. In 2009 CO.RE.IS. Italiana started its first pilot project for halal certification in Italy in collaboration with the Region of Lombardy and PROMOS (the special agency of the Milan Chamber of Commerce for international activities). Therefore, it registered the Halal Italia mark, the first official one in Italy, and set up an Ethical Committee for Halal Certification consisting of Muslim theologians and jurists and technical experts.
The Ethical Committee of CO.RE.IS. has the task of drawing up the rules and regulations for halal certification for the various production sectors and ensure their application, taking into account the common ground between the four Sunni schools of Islamic law as well as the Shi’ite one. This activity was officially recognized in an agreement signed on 30 June 2010 at the ministry of foreign affairs in Rome between the Italian minister of foreign affairs, Franco Frattini and the ministers of economic development, agricultural, food and forestry policies, and health in the presence of the ambassadors of the OIC (Organization of the Islamic Conference) countries.