Halal certification for hotels and catering

Hotels are counted by kitchen

A hotel does not hold one certificate for the building. The manual counts hotel kitchens by area or space that has its own dedicated entry access, and certifies those. You must submit a list of every kitchen and restaurant operating in the hotel, and the number applied for follows the entry-access rule.

The manual gives a worked example. A main kitchen that contains several smaller kitchens sharing its facilities and using the same entry counts as one hotel kitchen. Add a separate kitchen with its own dedicated entry and the hotel has two. Getting the count wrong changes the fee and the scope of the audit.

The separation rows decide most hotel audits. A certified kitchen must be clearly separated from one that is not, and the manual extends the rule to guests and event participants, to dishes served together, and to open kitchens in a certified restaurant. In practice, a hotel with a banqueting kitchen that is not certified will need to show that nothing from it reaches a certified outlet.

Who must be on the payroll

Hotels need two permanent Muslim employees for each kitchen, a Halal Executive for each hotel branch and an Internal Halal Committee, running a Halal Assurance System. Caterers split by size.

The Executive carries formal qualifications, set out in our staffing guide. A Halal Executive who cannot show the certificate from a registered training provider is a finding waiting to happen.

What it costs

Hotels pay by star rating, per kitchen or restaurant per year. Caterers, food service operators and convention centre central kitchens pay by annual turnover. Both schedules are in the manual and are verified below, along with the RM20 processing fee that applies to every application. The cost page has the full set.

What to check before you apply

• A pork menu anywhere in the hotel. It is a bar to applying, not something to remediate. Check this before you start spending.
• The kitchen count. Every kitchen and restaurant must be on the list, counted by entry access. A section with its own entry is a separate kitchen.
• Supply from an uncertified kitchen. Food and drink for programme participants and guests, and for any certified restaurant, must come from a certified kitchen.
• The Halal Executive is a title, not a person. Auditors interview whoever holds the post.
• Partial scope for caterers. The manual requires the application to cover the whole of the premises kitchen.

The standard for all of this is MS 1500:2019, with the food premises requirements in the manual. Food handlers need a food handler training certificate and a valid anti-typhoid vaccination, and the premises needs its Ministry of Health food premises registration. The restaurants page covers those prerequisites in detail.