Pizza Express ‘halal secret’ revives media storm

The front page in The Sun a few days ago proclaiming to have revealed the “Halal Secret of Pizza Express” has sparked vast media coverage on the issue of halal slaughter with coverage following in The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Guardian, Daily Star, The Times, BBC News, ITV News and Herald Scotland.

The Sun reported that all Pizza Express restaurants serve halal chicken across the UK “without telling customers”. It asserts that “staff only tell customers if they ask” and concludes that the alleged secretive use is tantamount to “Chicken trickin’”.

The Sun reiterates a claim from a Daily Mail front page story claiming ‘Britain Goes Halal (but nobody tells public) with a quote from a representative from the National Secular Society who says, “Unsuspecting members of the public are routinely being duped into buying meat from religious slaughter methods.”

In its editorial, the Sun elaborates on its opinion on religious slaughter stating, “What does bother us is the pizza giant’s sneaky attempt to hide it from non-Muslim customers, knowing some would take offence. It may be costly to offer both halal and non-halal. But others do.

“Pizza Express should follow suit, and be honest about it.”

Were the Sun’s leader writers better informed, they may have learnt that Pizza Express makes no ‘secret’ of its practice. Indeed, The Independent and Guardian observe the story is not “news” and that they both reported on Pizza Express’ use of halal chicken in September last year. Pizza Express have openly tweeted about their use of halal chicken and in 2012, a Pizza Express spokesman further stated: “We have always been happy to provide information on our ingredients to our guests.

“It is no secret that all the chicken used in our dishes is halal slaughtered. Our teams in restaurants have and always will provide this information, and in addition it is available on the customer service section of our website.

“We’re committed to high animal welfare standards and as such the birds are stunned before slaughter… our chicken supplier is accredited by the British Retail Consortium. This means it meets the global standard for food safety. None of our other meats are halal.”

According the BBC, the media outcry has led to a call for people to boycott Pizza Express and Islamophobic comments on social media. Former Apprentice candidate Katie Hopkins tweeted

“Do not use the phrase ‘religiously friendly foods’ in association with halal. About as friendly as Ebola.” 

Following a recent feature in the Mail on Sunday, on ‘the horror’ of halal slaughter, The Daily Mail attempts to further explore the issue by identifying further food retail outlets that serve halal food with another front page headline on the subject. While it notes Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Lidl label their halal and kosher ranges, only Subway and KFC overtly label their meat products on their menus. Not that this prevented the paper’s outburst over Subway’s 185 of halal outlets across the UK last week.

Citing figures from the Food Standards Authority that 51% of lamb, 31% chicken and 7% of the beef of the total of 16 million animals slaughtered in the UK are ‘religiously killed’, Guy Adams in another Daily Mail article suggests the proportion of religious slaughtered meat is disproportionate to the size of the 5% Muslim population in the UK and therefore “halal has now become the default position” in many areas.

But Adams overlooks FSA’s figures that the number of animals not stunned prior to slaughter for both kosher and halal meat accounted for 3% of cattle, 10% of sheep and goats and 4% of poultry.

In a quick Q&A article on the topic, the Independent notes that given that the majority of halal meat in the UK are pre-stunned, there is no practical difference between the way animals are treated in halal slaughterhouses that pre-stun animals and non-halal slaughterhouses. This has been also recognised by the RSPCA, according to the Guardian.

The Guardian attempts to demystify the disproportionate coverage given on the issue as it highlights the high demand for halal meat. It notes KFC’s statement that “feedback from consumers has indicated that there is significant demand for halal food… We’ve chosen [to serve it] in stores in areas where we expect demand for halal restaurants.” Certainly, the increase in retailers offering halal meat to meet customers’ demands reflects what it means to have a “free market”.

The media frenzy on religious slaughter has also resulted in Pizza Express to review their halal policy menus to provide greater transparency via labelling their chicken, the Independent reports.

While food labelling should indeed be clearer, it surely needs to apply to the labelling of all meat products and not just that slaughtered according to religious doctrine. As has been raised elsewhere, injury caused to animals from stunning that is poorly performed, or indeed from poor farming methods such as battery hens, and there is suggestion that the figures involved are significant, should be just as distressing to animal rights activists and deserving of their attention as the focus garnered by religious slaughter.

Furthermore, it is difficult not to see in the Daily Mail’s coverage of the issue staunch support and advocacy for the position advanced by the British Veterinarian Association on the introduction of legislation mandating pre-stunning following its recently launched petition on the matter. By generating disquiet about the ready availability of halal meat in the UK, the paper appears to be galvanising support for the campaign albeit with a distinct anti-Muslim bias.