The Narendra Modi Nawaz Uttar Pradesh government has banned food products with the “Halal” tag.

“Manufacturing, storage, distribution and sale of the product has been banned with immediate effect,” the Food Commissioner’s Office said in an order, NDTV reported.

Halal certification of food products is a parallel system which creates confusion regarding the quality of food products, the order said. According to the notification, “The right to decide the quality of food items is vested only in the authorities and institutions mentioned in Section 29 of the said Act, which examine the relevant standards as per the provisions of the Act.”

State officials defended their move by saying the move was against a company and a few other organizations for allegedly “exploiting people’s religious sentiments” to boost sales by providing “fake” halal certificates. What happened after the case was filed?

The case has been filed against organizations like Halal India Private Limited Chennai, Jamiat Ulema Hind Halal Trust Delhi, Halal Council of India Mumbai, Jamiat Ulema Maharashtra and others for allegedly exploiting religious sentiments by providing halal certificates. Sales have been boosted.

The statement said that these companies allegedly issued fake halal certificates to various companies for financial gain.

Jamiat Ulema Hind Halal Trust, on the other hand, in a statement termed the allegations as “baseless” and said it would “take necessary legal steps to counter such misinformation”.

The food commissioner’s office said that Halal certification is mentioned on the labels of certain food products such as dairy products, sugar bakery products, peppermint oil, salty ready-to-eat flavors and edible oils.