Looking for a Halal souvenir from Tohoku?
Tohoku is the least visited Japanese regions, despite their breathtaking sightseeing spots and great food. First timers in Japan would probably choose to go to major touristic spots, but if you want something different from others, then we will strongly recommend you going to this region.
Kamome no Tamago (かもめの玉子) is originally from Iwate prefecture. Although not many things are ready for Muslims in this region, this product can be a great option for those of you would like to avoid haram products.
What is Kamome no Tamago?
Kamome is Seagull in Japanese. This sweet is named “Egg of Seagull” from their shape. Yes, it is a shape of egg! The surface is coated with chocolate. The surface is so smooth and silky that you want to keep on touching.
Why seagull? It is because of seagulls flying over their ocean.
Inside is stuffed with yellow colored bean paste made with fresh egg, flour and bean paste. Then, thin layer of sponge covers the bean paste, and the most outer layer is white chocolate! This chocolate gives a crispy texture when bitten.
Is the product Halal?
Let’s see their ingredients first:
Ingredients
Ingredients (Plain flavor)
Bean paste, Sugar, Chocolate made from sugar, plant oil, lactose, cacao butter, skimmed milk, reduced starch syrup, flour, diary products, egg, margarine, liquid sugar, salt, trehalose, baking powder, emulsifier, coloring from plant, flavoring
Expiry date
2 to 3 weeks
Price
20 for about 2000 yen.
As you can see, their product contains margarine and emulsifier, which can be derived from animal ingredients including pork. As we have checked, these ingredients are made from plant, so the product is free from animal-derived ingredients!
Contamination
Ingredients are okay, but we also have to check if there is contamination in the making process.
There are some flavors for Kamome no Tamago, and some of these special editions contain fruit paste. Looking at their ingredients, we have found they are using gelling agent.
Gelling agent can be made from various things, including animal-derived ingredients. Gelatin, an ingredient usually made from pork, is one of the gelling agents, too.
We have confirmed with the manufacturer to see what their gelling agent is made from, and if there is possibility of contamination. However, unfortunately we could not hear from them and we could not confirm the status.
So, what can we do?
As we cannot guarantee the product is 100% free from contamination, we cannot say the product is completely Halal or Muslim-friendly. It is better to avoid the flavor with fruit to make sure you do not take the one with any haram ingredients.
However, if we only limit it to the normal plain flavor, the risk of contamination can be very low, because the one that might use the animal-derived ingredients have different filling and it usuallt does not share the production process. We have to ask you to judge by yourself using the information provided.
The product is very yummy and famous, and there are few items that we can recommend from Tohoku region. We hope one day the Halal status is confirmed with more solid information!