Halal food is that which is permitted and lawful for Muslims to eat based on Islamic rules. Scholars consider that food is generally permitted is unless there is a specific prohibition in the Qur'an and Sunnah.

The Qur'an instructs Muslims to eat pure, wholesome and permissible (halal) food, while rejecting food that is deemed impure, prohibited and unlawful.

Food that is prohibited (haram) or unlawful for Muslims to consume is:

• Any meat from pigs - pork, bacon, sausages and pork by-products e.g. lard, gelatin
• Meat with blood still in it
• Meat from animals that were fed on animal remains
• Predators - animals that have eaten other animals
• The blood of animals
• Alcohol

In extreme necessity, such as starvation, these prohibitions are temporarily lifted.

If halal food is not available, many Muslims are happy to eat vegetarian food or fish with the exception of shellfish, on which legal opinions differ.

Specific requirements for the meat to be halal:

1. The animal should be a permitted type: not pork, a predator animal, one fed on unclean food, improperly killed or sacrificed to a false god, carrion or already dead.
2. The animal is alive and healthy at time of slaughter.
3. The skin, fur or feathers of animal/bird must be clean before slaughter.
4. Stunning is not permissible.
5. The Muslim slaughterer, facing Makkah (Mecca) if possible, slits the throat of the animal/bird with a sharp knife, to incur as little pain as possible, whilst pronouncing the shahada or tasmiya, or machines slit the throat whilst a Muslim recites the shahada
6. The blood must be drained from the carcass naturally, as blood is forbidden.

The halal slaughterer has to follow the Welfare of Animals Slaughter or Killing Regulation 1995 - the Muslim man must be a licensed slaughterer, slaughtering in a licensed slaughter house and in the presence of or supervision of a Vet.

There are differences of opinion and rulings on what meat is permitted, depending on its source. Some believe that the only halal meat is that which is procured from Muslim sources. Others believe that meat that is procured from Jewish or Christian sources ('People of the Book') can be permissible if there is no alternative. The Qur'an allows food slaughtered by the Ahl-al-Kitab (People of the Book, i.e. Jews and Christians); however, modern slaughter practices such as stunning can mean that the meat nowadays does not fulfil the obligations.

Does your place of study or work provide halal food?