HRS 1:2026 — Halal Restaurant Standard

Requirements for food service establishments

Public consultation draft — draft v0.3 — issued 2026-09-07

This is a consultation draft, not an operative standard

The scheme described here is not yet certifying. No certificates have been issued and the Approved Supplier Register is not yet populated. Nothing in this document may be relied on as evidence of certification.

It is published for comment before it is finalised, because a certification standard that cannot be read by the people it governs is not a standard. Clause 12.2 commits us to publishing it; we would rather publish it early and be corrected.

Comments are invited until 2 November 2026. See How to respond. Passages marked ⚖️ are open questions on which we are specifically seeking views. Passages marked 📋 will be reconciled against OIC/SMIIC standards before issue.

This document is a scheme design. It is not a fatwa and does not purport to state Islamic law; questions of Shari'ah are for our Shari'ah Committee, whose rulings will be published with their reasoning.

0. Design basis

Normative references

• OIC/SMIIC 1:2019 — General Requirements for Halal Food 📋
• OIC/SMIIC 6:2019 — Places where halal food and beverages are prepared, stored and served 📋
• OIC/SMIIC 2:2019 — Requirements for Bodies Providing Halal Certification (binds us)
• OIC/SMIIC 24:2020 — Food Additives and Other Added Chemicals to Halal Food
• Codex CAC/GL 24-1997 — General Guidelines for Use of the Term "Halal"
• Applicable Azerbaijani food safety legislation and AQTA requirements

1. Scope

This standard applies to establishments in the Republic of Azerbaijan where food and beverages are prepared, stored, served or delivered to the end consumer, including: restaurants, cafés, canteens, bakeries and confectioneries with on-site preparation, hotel food and beverage operations, banquet and catering operations, central/production kitchens serving them, and delivery-only kitchens.

It does not apply to food manufacturing, slaughter, or packaged product certification.

2. Terms

halal — permitted under Islamic law. haram — prohibited under Islamic law. mashbooh — doubtful; status unresolved. Treated as haram until resolved. ⚖️ najis — ritually unclean. tayyib — wholesome and fit for consumption. Food that is not tayyib is not halal. establishment — the physical premises and operations within the certified scope. halal section — a physically delimited part of an establishment within the certified scope, where the remainder of the establishment is outside it. approved supplier — a supplier on the register maintained under clause 5. platform listing — any presentation of the establishment on a third-party service, including delivery and ordering platforms, reservation services, mapping and review services, and aggregator directories. critical non-conformity — a failure that has caused, or would cause, haram or najis material to enter food served as halal, or a false halal claim to reach a consumer.

2.1 The governing rule on meat ⚖️

Consistent with the maxim al-aṣl fī al-luḥūm al-ḥurma — the normative ruling in meat is prohibition — meat is treated as non-compliant until documentary proof of compliance exists. For all other inputs the reverse applies: permitted unless shown otherwise.

This asymmetry is deliberate and is the backbone of clause 5. Absence of evidence about meat is a finding, not a neutral state.

3. Certification classes

Class A — Halal Establishment

The entire premises is within scope. No alcohol, pork, or non-halal meat may be stored, prepared, served, sold, or brought onto the premises, including by customers. Mark: "Halal Establishment — Class A".

Class B — Halal Kitchen

All food prepared and served is compliant, but alcohol is served on the premises. Certification attaches to the kitchen and food operation, not to the venue.

The mark for Class B shall state the limitation on its face. Permitted wording: "Halal Kitchen — alcohol served on premises". The establishment shall not describe itself as a "halal restaurant" or "halal certified" without qualification, in any language, on any signage, menu, website, platform listing, or social media.

Design note. This mirrors MUIS HCC EEC2 cl. 4.2, which forbids claiming the restaurant is halal-certified where only stations are certified. Class B is the commercial reason the scheme is viable in Baku, and the disclosure requirement is the only reason it does not destroy the value of Class A. These two facts are inseparable — Class B without enforced disclosure is not a weaker scheme, it is a dishonest one.

Provisional status (12 months, non-renewable)

Granted to an applicant that meets all requirements except full approved-supplier coverage (clause 5), where a documented transition plan exists. Displayed as "Halal Certification in Progress". Confers no halal claim. Converts to Class A or B, or lapses.

4. Management and competence

4.1 Halal Supervisor. Each establishment shall appoint a named Halal Supervisor — a Muslim of good standing, employed by the establishment, present during operating hours or with a named deputy. Responsible for supplier verification, records, and compliance of service.

4.1.1 Authority . The Halal Supervisor shall have the authority to halt preparation, halt service, or refuse acceptance of a delivery where compliance is in doubt. This authority shall be stated in the written appointment and shall not be overridden by commercial or operating management. The establishment shall not subject the Halal Supervisor, or any employee raising a compliance concern, to dismissal, demotion or other detriment for doing so. Evidence that an employee has been penalised for reporting a compliance concern — to the Halal Supervisor or to us — is itself a Critical non-conformity, whether or not the underlying concern was well founded.

4.2 Competence. The Halal Supervisor and the owner's representative shall hold a valid certificate from our Halal Competency training. Kitchen staff handling meat shall receive documented induction training.

4.3 Halal Assurance System. The establishment shall implement and document a Halal Assurance System covering purchasing, receiving, storage, preparation, service, cleaning and complaint handling, within six months of certificate issue.

4.4 Internal audit. A documented internal halal audit shall be conducted at least six-monthly, with findings and corrective actions recorded and made available to us.

HAS and internal audit derive from the Halal Assurance System model (Wiley handbook Ch 15 §15.8.3–§15.8.4). A certificate without a live HAS is a snapshot of a day that has passed. 4.1.1 was added because Annex A item A10.4 tests whether kitchen staff believe they can stop non-compliant service — and a test with no clause behind it cannot generate a finding.

5. Supplier and input control — the core clause

5.1 All meat and poultry, and all products containing meat, poultry, or animal-derived ingredients, shall be sourced exclusively from approved suppliers.

5.2 Approved Supplier Register. We shall maintain and publish a register of approved suppliers — slaughterhouses, meat wholesalers, butchers, and manufacturers — assessed against documented criteria. Entry is by our assessment, not by self-declaration.

5.3 For each delivery of meat or poultry the establishment shall retain: supplier identity, the supplier's current halal certificate or register entry, delivery documentation, and lot or batch identification, for not less than 24 months.

5.3.1 Availability . Records required by this standard shall be held on the premises, or be retrievable in complete form within two hours during an audit. Records held only by a third party — accountant, head office, or group function — that cannot be produced within that period shall be treated as absent.

5.4 Verbal assurance, personal acquaintance with the supplier, and "everyone knows it's halal" are not acceptable evidence. Neither is a supplier's own unverified halal claim.

5.5 Non-meat inputs. Additives, gelatin, emulsifiers, rennet, enzymes, flavourings and processing aids shall be assessed for origin. Where origin cannot be established, the ingredient is mashbooh and shall not be used. Assessment shall follow OIC/SMIIC 24:2020. ⚖️📋

5.6 Alcohol as an ingredient. No ethanol-containing ingredient shall be used in food preparation, including for deglazing, flambé, marinades, extracts, or confectionery. ⚖️

5.7 Reconciliation records . The establishment shall maintain purchase and sales records in a form that permits quantities of meat and poultry received to be reconciled against quantities sold, over any period selected by the auditor. For this purpose the establishment shall additionally record:

• (a) its standard portion size for each menu item containing meat or poultry;
• (b) wastage, spoilage and staff consumption of meat and poultry;
• (c) opening and closing stock at each stocktake.

The establishment shall make these records available for reconciliation on request. Refusal to make records available for reconciliation is a Critical non-conformity.

5.7 exists so that Annex A's Mass Balance test has a contractual basis. Without it an establishment can simply decline the only test capable of detecting substitution that has been concealed from the documents. (a) is the enabling detail — without recorded portion sizes, sales cannot be converted to weight and the test cannot be performed at all.

Order of operations. Clause 5.1 can only be met once the Approved Supplier Register exists and is populated. Certification will therefore open in this order: (i) assessment and approval of slaughterhouses, wholesalers and butchers; (ii) publication of the Approved Supplier Register; (iii) opening of establishment certification. Provisional status (clause 3) is available to establishments applying during this period.

6. Premises, equipment and segregation

6.1 Equipment, utensils, cutting boards, and storage used for compliant food shall not come into contact with pork or its derivatives. Where such contact occurs it shall be declared and the item subjected to ritual cleansing (taharah) under Annex C, or discarded. ⚖️

6.1.1 Duty to declare . Contact shall be notified to us within 24 hours of discovery. Failure to declare is a Critical non-conformity, independent of whether the cleansing itself was correctly performed. An establishment that cleanses silently has concealed a contamination event and denied us the ability to detect a pattern.

6.1.2 Contacted food . Food that has been in contact with najis material shall be destroyed. It shall not be sold, served, reprocessed, donated, or given to staff. Quantity destroyed shall be recorded in the cleansing record. ⚖️ disposal route to be confirmed

6.2 There shall be no cross-mixing of compliant and non-compliant food or ingredients at any point: receiving, storage, preparation, cooking, plating, or service.

6.3 Refrigerated and dry storage for compliant material shall be segregated and identified.

6.4 Class A — completeness of the prohibition. No non-compliant food or beverage shall be present anywhere on the premises in any form. This includes expressly:

• (a) food and drink brought onto the premises, or consumed, by staff;
• (b) the contents of staff or personal refrigerators, lockers, and rest or changing areas;
• (c) deliveries made for staff consumption rather than for sale;
• (d) food and drink brought onto the premises by customers, contractors or visitors.

The establishment shall have a written rule to this effect, communicated to all staff and displayed in staff areas.

Staff meals are the most common Class A breach and the one establishments never think to declare, because they do not regard it as "the restaurant's food". Naming it removes the argument.

6.5 Cooking oil and fat . Oil, fat, and other cooking media used for compliant food shall not be shared with, nor have previously been used for, non-compliant food. Fryers and cooking media used for compliant food shall be dedicated and identified. Oil change, filtration and disposal records shall be maintained.

7. Alcohol — Class B only

Where alcohol is served, all of the following apply:

7.1 Any bar, dispensing counter, or alcohol preparation equipment shall be physically separated from the food preparation area, with no shared surfaces.

7.2 Glassware and utensils. Items used for alcoholic beverages shall be collected, washed, dried and stored separately, using dedicated equipment and dedicated storage. Specifically they shall not:

• (a) be washed in the warewash used for food-service items;
• (b) be dried on surfaces, racks or cloths shared with food-service items;
• (c) be stored in the same cabinet, shelf or rack as food-service items.

7.3 Alcohol shall not be stored in, or pass through, food preparation or food storage areas.

7.4 Alcoholic beverage menus shall be physically distinct from food menus and presented only on customer request. Alcohol shall not appear on the food menu.

7.5 Staff handling alcohol shall change or cover outer garments and wash hands before handling food. ⚖️

7.6 No marketing, signage, or platform listing shall present the establishment in a way likely to create the impression that the venue as a whole is halal.

Adapted from MUIS HCC EEC2 cl. 4.2, the only publicly-documented working model for mixed venues we have found. 7.1–7.4 are close to their requirements; 7.5 is an addition. 📋 Reconcile against OIC/SMIIC 6:2019 before issue — SMIIC 6 may take a stricter position, in which case Class B may not be SMIIC-alignable and becomes a national-only class.

8. Menu, marketing and use of the mark

8.1 The mark remains our property, is licensed for the certified scope only, and is withdrawn on suspension or expiry.

8.2 Every certificate shall carry: establishment name and address, class, scope, issue and expiry dates, a unique certificate number, and a QR code resolving to the public register entry.

8.3 No claim shall be made that is broader than the certified scope. Where only part of an operation is certified, the certified part shall be identified and the remainder shall not benefit from the claim.

8.4 The establishment shall not display the marks of, or claim certification by, any body that has not certified it.

8.5 Third-party platform listings . The establishment is responsible for the accuracy of its halal claims on every platform listing, whether or not the listing was created by the establishment. The establishment shall:

• (a) declare to us, at application, every platform on which it is listed;
• (b) notify us of any new listing within 14 days;
• (c) ensure every listing states the correct class and, for Class B, carries the disclosure required by clause 3;
• (d) where a listing is created or altered by a third party and cannot be corrected by the establishment, notify us within 14 days of becoming aware.

A claim appearing on a platform listing that exceeds the certified scope is treated as a claim made by the establishment, subject to (d).

This is where a certified venue is most likely to be seen by a consumer, and the place we are least likely to look. It also defines Süfrə's role: the register is the authority, and every platform listing should be reconcilable to it.

8.6 Language versions . Where any menu, sign, website, platform listing, or marketing material exists in more than one language, the halal claim — and, for Class B, the disclosure required by clause 3 — shall appear in every language version, with equivalent prominence and equivalent meaning.

A halal claim that appears in one language and is absent, differently qualified, or unqualified in another is a Critical non-conformity.

Baku operates in Azerbaijani, Russian, English and Arabic. The failure mode is specific and predictable: the Arabic menu says halal without qualification while the English one discloses the bar. This is precisely how a Class B venue would mislead the Gulf visitors who are the most motivated audience for the mark, and v0.1 did not cover it at all.

9. Food safety and tayyib

9.1 The establishment shall hold current AQTA registration and comply with applicable Azerbaijani food safety and hygiene legislation, including staff medical examinations and sanitary books, temperature control, pest control, and waste management.

9.2 Loss of food safety compliance is loss of halal compliance. Confirmed serious food safety failure, closure, or enforcement action by AQTA shall result in immediate suspension.

9.3 Halal controls shall be integrated into the establishment's food safety system as an additional hazard category alongside microbiological, chemical and physical hazards, with identified control points at: goods receiving, storage, preparation, and service.

9.2 is the operative consequence of tayyib: food that is not fit for consumption cannot be halal (Wiley Ch 1 §1.2.4). It also means we never have to run a hygiene inspectorate — we reference AQTA's.

10. Audit and surveillance

10.1 Initial audit. Announced, on-site, full scope. Document review plus physical inspection plus staff interview.

10.2 Surveillance. Not fewer than two audits per 12-month certification period, at least one of which shall be unannounced.

10.3 Auditors shall have right of access to all areas within and adjacent to scope, to records, and to staff, during operating hours without prior notice.

10.4 Auditor competence. Audits shall be conducted by named auditors holding documented competence in both halal requirements and food hygiene. No audit shall be conducted by a single individual acting alone as both assessor and decision-maker — the certification decision shall be taken by a person who did not conduct the audit.

§15.10.5 of the Wiley handbook names annual-only inspection as a specific failure mode; §15.10.3 names the "one-man show". 10.2 and 10.4 exist to close exactly those.

11. Non-conformities and sanctions

11.2 Three unresolved majors within a period, or a repeat critical within 24 months, results in withdrawal and a 12-month bar on reapplication.

11.3 Suspension and withdrawal are published. The register shall show current, suspended and withdrawn entries, with dates. Withdrawn entries remain visible for 24 months.

Publishing withdrawals is uncomfortable and is the strongest single credibility signal available to us. A register that only ever shows good news is a marketing list.

12. Our obligations as the certification body

Binding on us, published, and auditable. Non-negotiable.

12.1 Impartiality. We shall not provide consultancy, system design, or training-for-fee that prepares a specific establishment for its own audit. We shall not certify any establishment in which we, or our officers, hold an interest.

12.2 Transparency. This standard, the audit checklist, the fee schedule, the sanctions policy, and the Approved Supplier Register shall be public and free to read.

12.3 Public register. Maintained, current, and machine-readable, showing every certificate: establishment, class, scope, status, issue and expiry.

12.4 Governance. A Shariah Committee and a Technical Committee shall be constituted, with named members, published terms of reference, and recorded decisions. Rulings on contested questions shall be published with reasoning.

12.5 Separation of duties. Audit, certification decision, and appeal shall be performed by different persons.

12.6 Complaints and appeals. A published procedure with defined timeframes, and an appeal route not involving the original decision-maker.

12.7 Accreditation. We shall seek and maintain accreditation against OIC/SMIIC 2:2019.

Why clause 12 binds us and not only our clients. The published literature on halal certification records recurring causes of lost confidence in certification bodies: no published standard, bodies certifying their own products, single-person operations, inspection only once a year, absence of a Shari'ah or technical committee, undisclosed methods, and commercial dependence on a large client. Clause 12 is that list inverted and made binding on us, and auditable by anyone. We invite comment on whether it goes far enough.

Optional module — Muslim-Friendly Service (MFS)

Not part of halal certification; an additional, separately-marked designation for the Gulf tourism market. Prayer space and qibla direction, wudu facilities, Ramadan service, staff awareness. Aligns with OIC/SMIIC 9:2019 Halal Tourism Services. Must never be bundled into or confused with Class A or B. 📋

Consultation questions

1. Naming and numbering of the standard and the scheme — commercial/brand call.
2. Class B viability against OIC/SMIIC 6 — if SMIIC 6 forbids alcohol on certified premises outright, Class B cannot carry a SMIIC-aligned claim. Decide whether Class B becomes a national-only mark or is dropped.
3. Clause 5.6 (alcohol as a cooking ingredient) — absolute prohibition as drafted, or an exception for evaporated/trace? Shariah Committee.
4. Ritual cleansing procedure (6.1) — needs to be written as a separate annexed procedure.
5. Seafood scope — define permitted species explicitly in an annex to avoid ambiguity.
6. Fee model — flat, or by covers/turnover. Affects who can afford certification and therefore market coverage.
7. New in v0.2 — 5.7(b) staff consumption of meat. Class A prohibits non-compliant staff food (6.4) but staff do eat compliant meat, and that quantity must be recorded or the mass balance will show a false shortfall. Confirm this is workable operationally.
8. New in v0.2 — 8.5(d) uncorrectable third-party listings. Google Maps and review sites can carry "halal" tags the establishment cannot remove. The carve-out is necessary but creates a loophole. Decide how we verify a claimed inability to correct.

In preparation

Forms and templates accompanying each annex are published alongside them.