The Chemistry Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Syiah Kuala University carried out Community Service activities entitled: Support for Halal Certification for Home Industry Processing Meat-Based Frozen Food. This activity took place on Saturday, July 15 2023 at the UMKM assisted by Granada Food which is located at Komplek Damai Lestari Blok F No. 13 Lamreung Village, District. Darul Imarah, Aceh Besar.
The team involved in this service was Dr.Febriani, M.Si, Prof. Dr.Teuku M. Iqbalsyah, M.Sc and Prof. Dr.Saiful, M.Si. This activity also involved the Chemistry Department teaching staff and students from the Chemistry Undergraduate Study Program and students from the Chemistry Master’s Study Program.
One of the activities in this program is the socialization of product halal and food safety standards to several MSMEs in Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar. The aim of this outreach is to increase the knowledge and skills of MSMEs in processing frozen food products that comply with halal standards for frozen food production. The service activities are funded by LPPM USK’s product-based community service activities (PKMBP).
This activity presented two resource persons, namely Muhibuddin, STP (Chair of the BBPOM Certification Team in Banda Aceh) and Mislina A, MD (PPH Halal Center Cendikia Muslim Companion). This activity was attended by 7 MSMEs including: Granada Food MSMEs, Dimsum Cek Pon Malaya as assisted MSMEs and 5 MSMEs who were invited to take part in this activity including: Sushi One, Debebek, KayyaFood, Siomay Sultan, Culinary Yulia Ummu Habib.
Guaranteeing the halalness of a product is an effort to protect consumers as regulated in Law Number 33 of 2014 concerning Halal Product Guarantees (UU JPH). The JPH Law is further translated in Government Regulation Number 39 of 2021 concerning the implementation of halal product guarantees. This PP states that halal certification is a guarantee that a food product does not contain ingredients that are prohibited in Islamic teachings. Frozen food is processed food which is generally made from beef, chicken and seafood. Products are frozen after processing and packaging. and maintained frozen during distribution and storage. This processed product is a high risk food product due to raw material and temperature factors. Meat raw materials, especially beef and chicken, must be obtained from a halal slaughtering process. Processing and packaging must also be done halally. Apart from that, the storage, distribution and presentation processes must ensure that the product is halal. For this reason, halal certification must be obtained from the authorities to ensure frozen food production, from providing raw materials to serving, meets the requirements.
With a population that is almost 100% Muslim, Aceh Province must be able to become a barometer for processing halal products, especially food. However, the majority of home-produced frozen food products circulating in Aceh have not been processed according to halal production standards and do not have a halal certificate. This is likely caused by (i) lack of knowledge and skills regarding halal processing of products according to the criteria (ii) lack of knowledge about the halal certification process, and (iii) lack of access to capital to fulfill process halal standards. This situation causes the marketing scope of the frozen food products to be small.
The USK FMIPA Chemistry Department service team has hopes from this service activity, including: (1) increasing the knowledge and skills of the 2 assisted MSMEs and 5 invited MSMEs in processing home-made frozen food products that meet frozen food production quality standards, (2). Producing frozen food products that are clean, high quality, healthy and labeled halal with attractive packaging, (3) Availability of equipment that supports the processing and packaging of frozen food products, (4). Increased product sales with halal certificates. So that these MSMEs can become models in society in processing Frozen Food products with halal certification.
(Author: T. Munazir)
