Yotsuba Milk Product (よつ葉乳業) is a company from Hokkaido. With a vast land in Hokkaido, stock-farming is flourishing there, which contributes to the company’s success in the business. Their company policy is to deliver Hokkaido’s goodness directly to consumers, which they have realized by obtaining a Halal certificate to export to Southeast Asia. Now their products are sold in Indonesia and Malaysia.
It is great to see more and more Halal certified products are coming in Japan, but is there any Halal certified item that we can buy in Japan? We have got in touch with Yotsuba and they were so kind to answer all of the questions.
Why is it necessary to obtain a Halal certificate for dairy products?
It is very interesting to see thatit is necessary for the company to obtain Halal certificate. As you may know, obtaining a Halal certificate requires lots of procedures and paper works. Of course, if they handle products that contain margarine or shortening, they have to make sure the source, however, as a Milk Company they do not use such food additives.
Then, why did they need to get a certificate? Their answer is that Halal certificate is not only about ingredients, but also for the paper package, machinery,washing soap, as well as the brush that they use for cleaning, because it can be from pig! Even after successfully obtaining a certificate, they have to accept a recurrent check from the authority and make sure all the staffs take course to brush up their knowledge.
Is there any Halal certified product in Japan?
They have products for general consumers and for commercial merchandise. If we only talk about products for general consumers, there are milk, powdered milk and yogurt. The details are as follows:
Of course, it is totally up to you to find what is Halal or haram. Although the items you are buying is not Halal-certified, it does not mean that they are all haram. Unless something not acceptable is contained on the label, the product has no animal-derived ingredients or alcohol.
However, one thing the company has told us is that their ice cream and cheese may have emulsifier. It is difficult to specify which source they are made from as there are too many products, however, Yotsuba was so nice to say that they are always waiting for our inquiries!
