SINGAPORE – Catering to the need of the Muslim customers in Singapore, a famous food delivery app has offered to keep ’ halal orders’ separate from ‘non-halal foods’ by using designated satchels during delivery

“The move is both in response to feedback from customers and restaurant partners, as well as a strategic one to tap into the wide pool of halal restaurants in Singapore so that we’re able to offer an even greater range of options to our customers,” Siddharth Shanker, general manager of Deliveroo Singapore, told Salaam Gateway on July 22.

The online delivery service of Deliveroo currently has 171 halal-certified restaurant partners on its platform, out of close to 4,000 restaurants in total.

“We have sourced these bags from a third-party supplier who ensures that they are sturdy and can prevent any leakage or potential contamination from other foods,” Shanker said.

“All our riders have been thoroughly briefed to use the halal-only bags when assigned to an order from a halal-certified restaurant. On top of the halal-only bag, the orders are packaged individually by the restaurants, which adds an additional layer of protection.”

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Deliveroo followed arch-rival GrabFood in offering separate bags for halal food. GrabFood emerged from the ashes of Uber Eats after its Uber ride-share patron merged with Grab earlier this year.

“If you open the GrabFood app in Malaysia, you will see a halal category, in which restaurants that are halal-certified will be listed. In addition, our delivery partners use different thermal bags for halal and non-halal food,” a spokesperson told Salaam Gateway.

GrabFood has been offering these services in Singapore and Malaysia since it launched in May.

Another online delivery major, Foodpanda, also keeps halal food separate during its deliveries. It has more than 800 halal-certified establishments in its Singapore network.

In fact, Islamic Shari’ah doesn’t consider a Muslim as a sinner if he/she consumes non-halal food or drink by mistake without knowing.

Halal is an Arabic word that means “permissible.” The term is commonly used for meat, but it also applies to other food products, cosmetics, personal care products and pharmaceuticals which mustn’t be derived from non-halal sources like pork.

Halal also applies to any other consumed and edible materials which mustn’t be harmful to human health. For example, Islam considers wines, alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, E-cigs, hookah and other unhealthy things to be non-halal.

For something to be considered halal, the animal from which it came from must be well-treated, raised in a humane and healthy way, and slaughtered according to Shari’ah for hygiene reasons.