Non-conformance report (NCR) on Malaysia halal certification: A case study among small-medium scale food enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia

Abstract

Malaysian Halal Certification issued by the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) is an important certification for food enterprises in to verify the halal status of their products. This study aims to identify the occurrence of non-conformance reports (NCR) among certified halal food small-medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia and factors influencing NCR occurrences. Questionnaires were collected from 98 respondents of SMEs in Malaysia by e-mail, phone calls, and mail courier. The results show that the top five NCR involve issues with sertu (73.5%), appointment of the halal executive officers by the Halal Professional Board (HPB) (37.8%), halal training record (21.4%), contract agreement with the 3rd party transport (15.3%), and the staff hygiene record (13.3%). All of these non-conformance reports are categorized as minor NC. The factors influencing NCR occurrences are lack of halal awareness among staff, lack of commitment from the upper management, bureaucracy of religious department, and other factors such as lack of staff employed to focus on documentation and misunderstanding of halal guidelines. Hence, to maintain the halal food certification of SMEs, all halal-certified food enterprises should be committed and advocating for halal education and awareness training by the authorities.