Indonesia's Halal Certification Regulations on Cochineal Pigment

Recently, the legal question of carmine food coloring - which food-industry practitioners often use to add color to their processed foods - has sparked much discussion at Indonesia's Halal certification body.

Food and beverage dyes now in wide use come not only from chemical components but also from plant and animal components. Such is the case with carmine food coloring. Carmine is a food coloring extracted from the cochineal insect.

The cochineal is an insect that lives on cacti, feeding on the moisture and nutrients of the plant. The beetle-order insect has much in common with the grasshopper.

To this end, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) stipulated the cochineal food-coloring method in Fatwa No. 33/2011 of the Ulema Council on the cochineal food and beverage coloring method.

The Fatwa, signed on August 10, 2011 by MUI Fatwa Committee chairman Professor Hasanuddin AF and secretary KH Asrorun Niam Sholeh, stipulates that food and beverage dyes extracted from the cochineal (Carmine dyes) are Halal food as long as they are beneficial and harmless.

The Fatwa's provisions are based on several foundations, as follows:

--- Nothing forbidden to eat is found, except carrion, fresh blood or pork - because these are indeed filthy - or animals not slaughtered in a compliant manner.

In the Fatwa's provisions, it is also mentioned that LPPOM MUI, in a statement at the Fatwa Committee meeting on May 4, 2011, noted that the cochineal as a food and beverage dye ingredient contains no harm. In some parts, the cochineal resembles the grasshopper. The cochineal is also classified as an insect with an open blood circulatory system.