KUALA LUMPUR — The “ham and cheese sandwich” marked “halal” that was supplied to KK Supermarket & Superstore Sdn Bhd does not have proper halal certification, the Islamic Development Department (Jakim) said.
Its Halal Management Division had conducted a joint field inspection with the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Living Costs on the supplier on Jan 10, and found that the product in question did not possess halal certification.
“The company that produced the product was not a holder of the Malaysian Halal Certification.
“Therefore, its act of printing the Malaysian halal logo on the product is an offence under the Trade Descriptions Act 2011, and legal action has been taken by the domestic trade and living costs ministry,” Jakim said in a statement.
It did not name the supplier, but KK Supermarket & Superstore in an earlier statement said it was Shake and Bake Cafe Sdn Bhd.
The convenience store chain’s statement also mentioned that Jakim and the domestic trade and living costs ministry had raided Shake and Bake Cafe’s factory premises in Sunway Damansara on Jan 10.
Meanwhile, the ministry said it had opened an investigation paper into the supplier for suspected misuse of the halal logo.
The ministry’s enforcement director-general Datuk Azman Adam said the sandwich maker is also suspected of using halal logos issued by Jakim that expired in October 2023.
“The halal logo placed on the sandwich products had been given to another company that is no longer operating and which sold its business to the company that was raided,” Bernama reported him saying.
KK Supermarket & Superstore had earlier responded to complaints about a ham and cheese sandwich bearing the halal logo on its packaging, saying it had lodged a police report against Shake and Bake Cafe and issued a letter of demand to the supplier.
It has also frozen its dealings with the supplier and moved to halted the supply of the product to its KK Mart stores.
The product concerned is a “chicken ham and cheese layers” sandwich which was picked up by a complainant at the KK Concept Store on the Universiti Malaya campus.
Umno Youth Chief Datuk Dr Akmal Saleh had earlier taken issue with the “ham and cheese sandwich” in a video which showed the halal logo stamped on the barcode sticker on the packaging.
Akmal said KK Super Mart had offended Muslims last year over the Allah-printed socks episode questioned why it was again upsetting Muslims with a “ham” sandwich labeled as “halal”.
Meanwhile, Jakim reminded Muslim consumers they could check a product’s halal status on the department’s halal app or halal portal. – January 13, 2025