Mister Donut (ミスタードーナツ), or Misdo (ミスド) for short, is the No.1 donut shop in Japan. Some of you may know the shop because there are few branches in overseas, including Indonesia! Mister Donut Indonesia clearly says that they are Halal certified, which will make someone believe the same applies to the one in Japan. Unfortunately, the answer is no.
There is some confusion going about the Halal status of Mister Donut, so we have called the manufacturer and got the answer from them.
Tell us about the ingredients first.
Mr Donut has a wide variety of menus. Their famous Pon De Ring is a smash hit, as well as their savory pies, sweet and classic donuts, or even Dim Sum Set. They are not using Halal meat obviously, so let’s take a look at the ingredients of sweet and classic donuts.
There is an allergen list published by Mr Donut, available only in Japanese. Looking at this list, we have found so many of them that do not contain any animal-derived products!
Credit: https://www.misterdonut.jp/
Yellow-highlighted means Beef, Pork, Chicken, and Gelatin. Plus, their Shortening and Oil are confirmed as Plant-based. This means that there are some products which has no animal-derived products in Mr Donut.
Great! Then, Mr. Donut can be Halal, right? Unfortunately, Mr Donut is not Halal. This is not because of their ingredients, but because of their process line.
Why Mr Donut can’t be Halal if they are only using ingredients from plant?
There are few reasons why they cannot be Halal.
First of all, they use the same machinery regardless of the ingredients in the manufacture process. It means that they may have cooked a product which has pork / meat ingredients and the ones with no meat in the same machinery. This could mean there is a contamination in the making process.
Also, they do not separate the frying oil, so this process can also contaminate the donut. To ensure the best quality, Mr Donut requires each shop to fry the donut in their kitchen to serve freshly baked ones to customers. Unfortunately, this is the reason why Mr Donut cannot say that the frying oil is not contaminated as they cannot monitor all the shops.
They fry Donut in their kitchen.
Then, why some sweet donuts have pork and some don’t?
Looking at this list carefully, we will notice a strange thing. There are some sweet donuts which have pork and other meats as their ingredients, though they never contain meat. Some other sweet donuts say they do not have any animal-derived ingredients, what is the difference?
The answer from Mr Donut is that whether animal-derived ingredients are used or not in the product. As you may know, many food additives are made from animal parts. If there is no “pork” used in the donut, then it is confirmed that there is no food additives derived from pork is contained.
This is the reason why there is a confusion for their Halal status. In short, there are some items that do not have any animal-derived product, however, they do not separate the machinery or frying oil, which may be causing contamination. As a result, Mr Donut does not want to say they are Halal or Muslim-friendly.
What about Mr Donut Indonesia?
Some of you may now wonder Mr Donut Indonesia. We have asked the question about their Halal status over the phone, but the reply was that the Mr Donut Indonesia is under the supervision of a local company, and they are not sure about the Halal status.
Checking on the information, it is clearly saying that they are Halal-certified! Though there are less selection, it seems like it is the only way to enjoy the taste of Halal Mister Donut.
The important thing is that the manufacturing process is different, so that even though the branch in Indonesia is selling Halal donut, what we can get in Japan is not Halal at all.
In conclusion
It is extremely unfortunate to say that the Mister Donut is not Muslim-friendly, however, their response was very accurate and to-the-point. We hope you can use the provided information to help you judge.
Information as of May 2023. We are only translating the labels and information and not judging if the item is Halal or not. Please use your own discretion to decide if you want to consume the item or not.
