KFC in Canada now requires nearly all of its Ontario restaurants to serve halal chicken and eliminate pork products, sparking some disparaging comments on social media.
The switch to a menu that abides by Muslim dietary restrictions was made in May. The company issued a memo to franchises informing them of the changes, saying it’s committed to providing diverse and inclusive options for its customers.
The company said restaurants in Thunder Bay and Ottawa are excluded from the policy, which will roll out nationwide by year’s end.
Other franchises in the province will have to ensure that all chicken products are halal certified and not sell products that include bacon, unless they are joint KFC-Taco Bell locations.
One user on X, formerly Twitter, posted a link to a petition asking KFC to reverse the decision and said it’s unwarranted since only five per cent of Canadians are Muslim.
The post said Canada is now a country “where the loud minority dictates the policies.” Some who posted on X to complain included the #BoycottKFC hashtag.
Others derided calls to boycott KFC and instead order from Popeyes and Mary Brown’s — pointing out that those fast-food chains already offer halal chicken in most locations.
“The best thing on Twitter today is Canadian right-wingers reacting to the news of KFC Canada going halal by saying they’re switching to Mary Brown’s, not knowing Mary Brown’s has been certified halal in most big-city locations for years,” one X user wrote on the weekend.
In the company memo, KFC says it has partnered with suppliers such as Maple Lodge Farms, which owns Zabiha Halal, billed as “Canada’s #1 Halal food brand.”
Halal is Arabic for “permissible” under Islamic law and applies to not only food and drink, but all matters of daily life, according to the Canadian Halal Food Certifying Agency. It says food products are not halal if they have “gone through improper slaughtering processes.”
Nasser Deeb, director of Halal Expo Canada 2024, held in Toronto in late May, said halal is part of ethical living and can be applied to everything from cosmetics and vitamins to financial matters like mortgages.
It’s also beneficial to Canadian meat exporters who want to expand into the halal food markets around the world, he said.
“We are losing out to Australia, New Zealand and Brazil for halal meat, because we’re not exporting enough,” and Canadian producers are losing out in Muslim countries compared with those countries, Deeb said.
Source: CBC
