A group of Muslim restaurant franchisees is fighting fast-food chain Popeyes Louisiana Chicken in court over the right to sell hand-slaughtered Halal meat for religious reasons.
The battle in Ontario Superior Court comes after the Atlanta-based franchise moved to replace the chicken supply with machine-killed birds in 14 Toronto restaurants. The company says it’s still Halal-certified; the franchisees claim the machine method is against the beliefs of a majority of Muslims.
“If I begin selling machine-slaughtered chicken, I will immediately lose an enormous segment of my customers,” reads the sworn affidavit from Abdul Haffejee, who owns eight Popeyes in the GTA.
Haffejee, who donates Popeyes chicken to mosques and sponsored Muslim Day at Canada’s Wonderland, said between 50 and 80 per cent of his customers are Muslim.
“All of the members of the Muslim community that I have worked so hard to attract will be gone instantly. They cannot be replaced,” he said in his affidavit, claiming tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars at stake.
Full article (Toronto Star)
Meat flavour and seasoning producer Gewurzmuller was one of seven companies acquired by Israeli firm Frutarom in 2007, and the deal included Blessing Biotech which produces starter cultures used in fermentation of micro organisms and enzymes, mainly for the dairy and bakery industry.
Gewurzemuller says that, with Blessing it has an advantage in being able to make its own starter cultures, as it can offer optimally matched seasonings and starter cultures from a single source.
The new organic cultures, called Bitec Organic GM-1 and Bitec Organic SM-96 use organic sucrose as the medium and do not use any genetically modified or genetically engineered raw materials throughout the process.
