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Zulal Standard stays at v0 through the beta. Each change to the rules is a new revision, listed here newest first, in plain language.

Every ruling is still waiting for a scholar review before public launch.

v0 (beta) · Revision 12 · 23 Sept 2026

We decided on 23 September 2026 that artificial flavors are Halal · small doubt in every kind of product.

Artificial flavors

• US law defines an artificial flavor as one that isn't made from a spice, fruit, vegetable, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs or dairy (21 CFR 101.22(a)(1)). So an artificial flavor isn't from an animal, whatever the product. The only question left is a possible trace of alcohol used to carry the flavor.
• So when artificial flavors are the only concern, the product is now Halal · small doubt in sweet and savory food alike, and when we can't tell what kind of product it is. Before, only sweet products were; savory products and products we couldn't place were Doubtful · low. This also applies when you type an ingredient list on the Check page.
• A halal certificate from an accepted certifier, or a reply from the brand saying the flavor isn't from an animal and no alcohol is used, makes it fully Halal.
• Alcohol that is listed on the label is still Haram.
• Artificial flavors now have their own explanation on the result, without the wording about meat that belongs to natural flavors.

What stays the same

• Natural and artificial flavors contain natural flavor, so they still depend on the kind of product: Halal · small doubt in sweets, fruit products and drinks, Doubtful · low in savory food and when we can't tell.
• When a product lists natural flavors next to an artificial flavor, the natural flavors still decide: savory food stays Doubtful · low.
• Artificial and imitation vanilla flavor keep their ruling: they are judged like natural flavors, by the kind of product. So does "nature-identical" flavoring, which the US definition doesn't cover.

What this changes for some products

• On the USDA catalog, 751 products moved from Doubtful · low to Halal · small doubt: 241 savory products and 510 we couldn't place. Nothing else changed.

v0 (beta) · Revision 11 · 23 Sept 2026

No ruling changed. We now read more of what labels say, so far fewer products are Doubtful · low only because we didn't recognize a name. On the USDA catalog, about 62,000 products moved out of Doubtful · low.

Words that describe an ingredient

• Labels often add words that don't change what an ingredient is: how it was pressed or dried, where it's from, its color or variety. "First cold pressed extra virgin olive oil" is olive oil, "Tunisian olive oil" and "olive oil from Spain" are olive oil, and "organic cane sugar" is sugar.
• We only set those words aside when what's left is a name we already know. If it isn't, the whole name stays unrecognized, as before.
• Words that do change the ruling are never set aside: "natural" and "artificial" in flavors, "vegetable" in vegetable mono- and diglycerides, "animal", "rendered", "hydrolyzed", "modified", "alcohol-free" and "non-alcoholic", or meat words such as "boneless" and "grass-fed".
• A word we set aside never hides a rule. "Lime extract" is an extract, and extracts are made in alcohol, so it is Haram like other fruit-named extracts. We used to read it as lime.

Names joined by "and", "&", "or", "with" or "in"

• "Sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate" or "diced tomatoes in tomato juice" is now read as the two ingredients it names, when we know both.
• A shared ending is shared the way you'd read it: "soybean and palm oil" is two oils, and "champagne and white wine vinegars" is two vinegars, not champagne.
• Flavors are read as a whole unless every part is a flavor: "natural flavor & wine" keeps its wine-named flavor ruling, Doubtful · high.

Notes that aren't ingredients

• "(Turkey, USA)" after hazelnuts is where they come from, not turkey meat. "Turkey" on its own is still read as turkey.
• Words such as "dried", "sweetened" or "unbleached" listed on their own describe the ingredient before them, and notes such as "controls acidity" or "used to protect quality" say what an additive is for.

Names we added

• 565 plain names: grains, flours, sugars and syrups, fruit and vegetables, nuts and seeds, spices, gums and fibers, water, salt, minerals, vitamins, food cultures, and common misspellings of names we already had. Nothing animal-derived or alcohol-related was added.

What this changes for some products

Reading labels better means an existing rule now applies where it should:

• Meat named in a new way, such as "white chicken" or "roasted beef stock", is now recognized as meat, so without a halal certificate those products are Haram. They were Doubtful · low.
• Fruit-named extracts, such as "lime extract", are Haram (above).
• Soy sauce made from hydrolyzed corn and soy protein isn't brewed, so our brewed soy sauce rule no longer applies to it, as intended since Revision 5.
• "Non-animal rennet" is no longer mistaken for animal rennet.

v0 (beta) · Revision 10 · 23 Sept 2026

We changed two rulings on 23 September 2026: natural flavors, which now depend on the kind of product, and vanilla flavor.

A new verdict: Halal · small doubt

• US law lets "natural flavors" come from fruit, plants, dairy, eggs, meat, poultry or seafood, and labels don't say which. Flavors are also often carried in a little alcohol, which doesn't have to be listed when only a trace is left in the food.
• In savory foods such as BBQ chips, chicken ramen or ranch dressing, the flavor may be made from meat. There's no clear sign that it is, so these stay Doubtful · low, as before.
• In sweets, fruit products and drinks such as fruit snacks, chocolate bars or lemonade, meat is very unlikely. The only thing left is a possible trace of alcohol used to carry the flavor. A doubt like that doesn't cancel what is permissible, so when flavorings are the only concern, these are now Halal · small doubt. They were Doubtful · low.
• We tell the two apart by the product's category and name. A savory word in the name, such as "chicken", "BBQ", "ranch" or "cheese", always keeps a product Doubtful · low. When we can't tell what kind of product it is, it stays Doubtful · low. The result shows what we went by, with a link to tell us if we got it wrong.
• Halal · small doubt has its own badge: the same check mark as Halal, drawn as an outline, with the words "small doubt".
• Alcohol that is listed on the label is still Haram, and vanilla extract and vanilla flavor keep their own rulings.

Vegan marks and replies from brands

• A vegan certificate rules out an animal source, but says nothing about alcohol. A vegan product whose only concern is flavorings is now Halal · small doubt. Before, the vegan mark made it fully Halal.
• A reply from the brand that says the flavor isn't from an animal gives Halal · small doubt. A reply that also says no alcohol is used makes it fully Halal.
• A halal certificate from an accepted certifier still makes it fully Halal.

Vanilla flavor (ruling change)

• Vanilla flavor and natural vanilla flavor are now Doubtful · high, up from Doubtful · low. The US agency that regulates vanilla (the TTB) uses "vanilla flavor" as the name for vanilla made like vanilla extract but with less than 35% alcohol, the same product as "vanilla flavoring".
• So are "natural vanilla flavor with other natural flavors" and "natural and artificial vanilla flavor", which contain it.
• Artificial and imitation vanilla flavor are unchanged: they are judged like other flavorings.

Asking the brand

• "Ask the brand" has an email for natural flavors that asks the two questions that matter: is any of the flavor from an animal, and is alcohol used to make or carry it.

v0 (beta) · Revision 9 · 23 Sept 2026

One ruling changed: vanilla flavoring (below). Otherwise we now recognize more of what labels say, so fewer products are Doubtful · low only because a name wasn't in our list.

Vanilla flavoring (ruling change)

• Vanilla flavoring is now Doubtful · high, up from Doubtful · low. In the US it is made the same way as vanilla extract, but with less than 35% alcohol, so it usually still contains alcohol. A halal certifier or a reply from the maker can clear it; vegan and kosher marks can't, because they say nothing about alcohol. Artificial or imitation vanilla flavoring, and "vanilla flavor", are unchanged.

Vanilla extractives (fix)

• "Vanilla extractives" written without "bean" was mistaken for vanilla extract and shown as Haram. It now gets its own ruling from Revision 8, Doubtful · high, the same as "vanilla bean extractives".

Plant oils

• Mustard seed oil is now recognized as a plant oil, and is Halal. It was shown as an unrecognized ingredient, Doubtful · low.
• The same goes for any oil named after a plant in our list, with or without "seed": mustard, sunflower, canola and rapeseed, cottonseed, safflower, sesame, corn, soybean, grapeseed, rice bran, peanut, palm and palm kernel, coconut, olive, avocado, flaxseed and linseed, pumpkin seed, walnut and almond.
• Only those plant names count. A plain "oil" still can't be recognized, and an animal oil such as fish oil is still judged by what it comes from.

Processing notes

• Some labels add a note on how the product was made, such as "diluted with water to 5% acidity" on vinegar. These notes were read as unrecognized ingredients, which made the product Doubtful · low.
• "Diluted with water", "reduced with water" and "water added" now count as water, which is Halal. Strength notes such as "to 5% acidity" and purpose notes such as "for color", "to preserve freshness" or "as a processing aid" aren't counted as ingredients.
• A note never hides an ingredient: "preserved with sodium benzoate" is still read as sodium benzoate, and anything else in such a phrase is still checked.

v0 (beta) · Revision 8 · 22 Sept 2026

We now follow a second scholarly authority, halal.ua, alongside Darul Fatwa. We decided each point where the two differ.

halal.ua added as a second source

• halal.ua is the Certification Center "Halal" in Kyiv, under the Religious Administration of Muslims of Ukraine. It is in the same scholarly tradition as Darul Fatwa, and the two agree on nearly everything: machine slaughter isn't accepted, hand slaughter by a Muslim or a kitabiyy is valid, doubtful meat isn't permissible, and processing doesn't make pork or maytah pure.
• Its quotes now appear next to Darul Fatwa's on the rules they support: gelatin and bone, slaughter, doubt, sea creatures, insects such as carmine, and pig bristle.
• Its pages are in Ukrainian and Russian. We show each quote as written, with an English translation, labeled "Translation" (ours) or "halal.ua's own English".
• Our standard now has a table of the points where the two differ, and which way we went.

Ingredients that contain alcohol

• Following halal.ua, which excludes any ingredient that contains alcohol, these are now Haram (they were Doubtful · low):
• vanilla extract, which by US law is at least 35% alcohol;
• other flavor extracts, which are made in alcohol, such as almond, lemon, peppermint or rum extract;
• alcohol in cosmetics, such as "alcohol denat." and SD alcohol.
• Nothing clears these, because the alcohol is part of the ingredient itself: not a halal certificate, a reply from the brand, or vegan or kosher certification.
• Extracts labeled alcohol-free or non-alcoholic are Halal.
• When a label lists what its vanilla extract (or other flavor extract) is made of, and none of it is alcohol, it is Doubtful · high: extracts are normally made with alcohol, but this label lists none, so we can't confirm either way. A halal certifier that meets our standard, or a reply from the brand that we have reviewed, can clear it. Vegan or kosher certification can't.
• Unchanged: fatty alcohols such as cetyl and stearyl alcohol, which aren't the alcohol that intoxicates; flavorings and fragrance, which only might contain alcohol (Doubtful · low); and soy sauce.
• Medicine still never shows "Haram". It shows our medicine advice instead.

Stunning

• Darul Fatwa accepts a reversible stun for lamb, sheep and goat: one the animal would recover from. halal.ua's older site (2015) rejects electrical stunning entirely. We follow Darul Fatwa, so no verdict changes.
• Meat that may have been stunned now shows a Scholars differ note saying that some authorities, including halal.ua, reject electrical stunning.

Shellac

• Shellac stays Doubtful · high. halal.ua excludes additives made by processing insects, but doesn't name shellac, and Darul Fatwa hasn't ruled on it.

v0 (beta) · Revision 7 · 22 Sept 2026

We made final decisions on kosher certification, after researching what each kosher agency actually allows.

Only kosher agencies we have checked

• A kosher label on its own doesn't tell us where an animal ingredient came from. Some agencies certify gelatin from animals that weren't slaughtered, or even from pigs. So kosher certification now counts only from agencies whose published policies we have checked: OU, OK, Star-K, cRc, COR and KLBD.
• Kosher Australia counts too, except for beef and veal (see below). It also doesn't clear ingredients known to come from an animal, such as gelatin, because they may come from Australian cattle.
• KOF-K will count once it gives us its gelatin policy in writing. Until then it counts for nothing.
• Everything else counts for nothing: a plain "K" (anyone can print it), "kosher-style" food, Shin-K, Ko Kosher, Triangle K, Conservative (Masorti) supervision, regular (non-mehadrin) Israeli rabbinate supervision, and kosher medicine lists, which aren't certification. The result says the kosher mark wasn't counted.
• A new page, Kosher certification, lists every agency, our decision and why, with quotes from their own pages.

Kosher beef and veal

• In Australia, Austria and Finland the law requires a stun straight after the cut for kosher cattle. We can't confirm it was the cut, not the stun, that killed the animal, so kosher beef and veal from those countries are now Doubtful · high, like any other stun after the cut.
• When we don't know where kosher beef was slaughtered, it still passes. We found no sign of a stun after the cut in kosher plants in the USA or the UK, and we have asked the agencies.
• Kosher poultry, lamb, sheep and goat aren't affected.

What kosher clears now

• Certification from an accepted agency now also clears ingredients that only might come from an animal: E471 and other emulsifiers, glycerin, stearates, polysorbates, whey, rennet and enzymes not stated as animal, cheese, shortening, capsules, and L-cysteine and keratin whose source isn't stated. These agencies don't allow any non-kosher ingredient in a product they certify, however small, so these must be from plants or from kosher-slaughtered animals.
• It still clears gelatin, animal fat, animal rennet, pepsin, bone phosphate (E542) and meat, which is shown with the "Hand slaughter · kitabiyy possible" tag.
• Kosher never clears carmine, shellac or confectioner's glaze, alcohol or wine, wine or beer with the alcohol removed, soy sauce, flavorings, or pork.

v0 (beta) · Revision 6 · 22 Sept 2026

• Arabic terms such as halal and haram now follow the Taibah transliteration throughout: in the explanations, on the verdict badges and chips, and on these pages. As with every other term, an underline marks an emphatic letter or a long vowel.
• The same goes for Muslim, Islam, Qur‘an and our own name, Zulal.
• One word keeps its familiar spelling: zabihah, because it is the word people search for.
• Names of organizations (for example Halal Monitoring Services) and quotes from certifiers and Darul Fatwa keep their own spelling.
• No ruling changed.

v0 (beta) · Revision 5 · 22 Sept 2026

We made final decisions on the items that were still open: alcohol and soy sauce, HMS lamb, kosher certification, and ingredients where scholars differ.

Alcohol and soy sauce

• Alcohol listed as an ingredient in food is now Haram (it was Doubtful · low). This covers "alcohol", "ethanol" and "ethyl alcohol". Sake, mirin and wine were already Haram. Darul Fatwa counts alcohol as najis (impure) and forbids every intoxicant, even a small amount.
• This includes alcohol listed inside another ingredient, for example "vanilla extract (water, alcohol, sugar)". Vanilla extract on its own, with no alcohol listed, stays Doubtful · low.
• In cosmetics, "alcohol denat." and SD alcohol stay Doubtful · low: they are usually synthetic and not known to be khamr.
• Medicine still never shows "Haram". Medicine that lists alcohol now shows our medicine advice (consult a trustworthy Muslim doctor).
• Naturally brewed soy sauce, shoyu and tamari contain alcohol that forms while they ferment, even when the label lists only water, soybeans, wheat and salt. Darul Fatwa hasn't ruled on alcohol that forms inside a food, and we have asked.
• Soy sauce sold as the product: Doubtful · high. We recognize it from the product name or category, or when soy sauce is the first ingredient.
• Soy sauce as a minor ingredient in another food: Doubtful · low (it was not flagged).
• Halal-certified soy sauce: Halal. We now accept HFFIA (Netherlands), which certifies Kikkoman's halal soy sauce, for products that contain no meat.
• Soy sauce made from hydrolyzed soy protein (not brewed) is not affected.
• Vegan or kosher certification doesn't clear alcohol or soy sauce.

Non-alcoholic wine and beer

• Wine or beer with the alcohol removed, used as an ingredient, stays Haram, now with its own explanation: it is made from khamr, and taking the alcohol out is a change made by people, not a natural one. Wine becomes pure only when it turns into vinegar on its own.
• Flavors labeled alcohol-free (such as "rum flavor (alcohol-free)") stay Halal, because they aren't made from the drink.

HMS lamb

• A stun that kills the animal is haram. HMS says only that the animal must be alive when it is slaughtered; it doesn't say a stun must be one the animal would recover from. Our certifier list showed HMS lamb as passing, but no HMS statement supports that, so HMS lamb, sheep and goat are now Doubtful · high unless we know which plant they came from.
• Lamb, sheep and goat from HMS-approved plants in New Zealand and Australia pass: the government halal rules there require a stun the animal would recover from. We match the plant number printed on the pack (97 plants).
• HMS lamb from US plants stays Doubtful · high until HMS confirms in writing that the stun is not lethal. That possibility is the only reason it isn't marked Haram.
• Beef and poultry are never cleared this way.

Kosher

• Kosher meat is slaughtered by hand by a Jewish slaughterer, a kitabiyy, which Darul Fatwa accepts. Kosher-certified meat now passes, with the "Hand slaughter · kitabiyy possible" tag.
• In a kosher-certified product, gelatin, animal fat, animal rennet, pepsin and other ingredients known to come from an animal also pass.
• Kosher certification never clears wine, alcohol or pork.

Where scholars differ

We follow Darul Fatwa's school (Shafi^iyy). Where the other schools disagree, the result now shows a Scholars differ note.

• Now Halal: shrimp, prawns, crab, lobster, clams, oysters, mussels, squid and octopus (they were Doubtful · high; the note says the Hanafiyy school permits only fish); glucosamine and chitosan (were Doubtful · low); catfish, eel, swordfish, sturgeon and caviar, and monkfish (were Doubtful · low); shark (with a note).
• Now Haram: carmine (E120), a red color made from insects (it was Doubtful · high; the note says Egypt's Dar al-Ifta and Indonesia's MUI permit it, and it is marked for scholars to review).
• New: frogs, snails, and crocodile or alligator are Haram; insects eaten as food, such as cricket or mealworm flour, are Haram; locusts are Halal; turtle is Doubtful · high and marked for scholars to review. Snail extract in cosmetics is permissible, because Darul Fatwa says snails are not impure.
• Shellac (E904) stays Doubtful · high. Confectioner's glaze, which is usually shellac, is now Doubtful · high too (it was Doubtful · low).
• Honey, beeswax, royal jelly, propolis, bee pollen and silk are Halal.

v0 (beta) · Revision 4 · 22 Sept 2026

• Explanations now write Arabic terms in the Taibah Publishing transliteration system, in italics: an underline marks an emphatic letter or a long vowel, ^ is the letter ^ayn and ‘ is the hamzah. For example, the medicine advice now reads "rulings of necessity (darurah)", and the cosmetics note names the Shafi^iyy school.
• A few words keep the spelling you already know: “Halal”, “Haram”, “Zabihah”, “Muslim”, “Islam” and “Quran”.
• A new page, Terms we use, lists every term with its Arabic and its meaning.
• No ruling changed.

v0 (beta) · Revision 3 · 22 Sept 2026

We decided more of the open items, including a new main principle for animal ingredients.

Animal ingredients and meat without halal certification

• New principle: if an ingredient is known to come from meat or from an animal's body, and the product has no halal certification, we now mark it Haram (it was Doubtful · high). Without certification we presume the animal was not Islamically slaughtered.
• This covers meat and poultry themselves, bone broth, gelatin and collagen, animal fat (tallow, suet), animal rennet, pepsin, pancreatin, animal lipase, edible bone phosphate (E542), L-cysteine from feathers, and keratin from feathers, horn or hoof.
• Unlike pork, this can change. It becomes Halal when the product is certified by a halal certifier that meets our standard. For ingredients (not meat itself), it also becomes Halal with vegan certification or a reviewed reply from the manufacturer confirming a halal source, such as fish, zabihah or plant. The app shows it as "Haram unless certified halal or confirmed from a halal source".
• If the product is halal certified, but by an agency whose policy allows machine slaughter or stunning (or whose policy we don't have), we mark these ingredients Doubtful · high.
• Pork is Haram in every case, as before.
• Ingredients that only might come from an animal are unchanged at Doubtful · low: for example whey, unspecified enzymes or rennet, E471, glycerin, stearates, polysorbates, natural flavors, and L-cysteine or keratin whose source isn't stated.
• Flavors named after meat (such as chicken flavor) stay Doubtful · high. They are named after meat but not known to contain it.
• In cosmetics, these ingredients follow the food grade, and animal fat (for example sodium tallowate in soap) now shows the same note about najasah and prayer as gelatin and collagen.
• Medicine still never shows "Haram": an uncertified gelatin capsule, for example, now shows our medicine advice (consult a trustworthy Muslim doctor) instead of Doubtful · high.

Other changes

• L-cysteine from human hair is now Haram (it was Doubtful · high): using parts of the human body goes against human dignity, and no certificate can change that. It is still marked for scholars to review.
• PGPR (E476) and dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate (E480) are now Halal (they were Doubtful · low). They are not made from animals, so they are exceptions in the E470–E483 emulsifier family.
• Vegan or plant keratin is now Halal, like other ingredients the label says are from plants.

Confirmed without change

Polysorbates, sorbitan esters and polyoxyethylene stearates; stearic acid and cosmetic stearates; E635 with E627/E631, and E921 with E920; plain chymosin and rennet casein; and which Darul Fatwa citations go with which rule.

Still under discussion (unchanged)

Whether carmine, shellac and shellfish can ever be cleared, and scaleless fish (a "scholars differ" approach is coming after more research); soy sauce; HMS's stunning policy; and whether non-alcoholic wine or beer used as an ingredient should stay Haram.

v0 (beta) · Revision 2 · 22 Sept 2026

We reviewed the first ruleset and decided the items below. Items still being discussed have not changed.

Flavors named after alcoholic drinks (rum, brandy, wine, whisky…)

• A flavor or extract named after an alcoholic drink, such as rum flavor or brandy extract, is now Doubtful · high instead of Doubtful · low. It may be made with the drink itself, which is khamr.
• If the label makes clear it is not made from the drink, it is Halal. We accept the words "imitation", "non-alcoholic" and "alcohol-free", for example "imitation rum flavor" or "artificial rum flavor (alcohol-free)".
• "Artificial rum flavor" on its own stays Doubtful · high.
• "Imitation rum extract" is treated like other flavor extracts (such as almond extract), which are normally made in alcohol: Doubtful · low.
• A halal certifier or a reviewed reply from the manufacturer can still clear the doubt. Vegan certification does not, because it says nothing about alcohol.

Flavors named after meat (chicken, beef, bacon, ham, pork…)

• A flavor named after meat, with no ingredients of its own listed, is now Doubtful · high instead of Doubtful · low. Bacon, ham and pork flavors are included; they are Doubtful · high, not Haram, when the label does not list pork.
• If the label makes clear it contains no meat, it is Halal. We accept "vegan", "plant-based", "meatless", "imitation" and "(contains no meat)", for example "chicken flavor (vegan)".
• Vegan certification, a reviewed reply from the manufacturer, or a halal certifier that meets our full slaughter standard clears the doubt.

Products you put on your body (cosmetics and personal care)

• Wine, beer, rum or any other intoxicating drink in a cosmetic is now Haram instead of Doubtful · high. It is not permissible to put something known to be najis (impure) on yourself intentionally.
• The same applies to other ingredients known to be najis: blood, and bones, skin or hair that the label says come from pigs (for example pig skin, hog hair or boar bristle). Pork ingredients were already Haram.
• Ingredients whose source we can't tell keep the same grade as in food.
• Cosmetic alcohol ("alcohol denat.", SD alcohol) stays Doubtful · low, because it is usually synthetic and not known to be khamr.
• When a cosmetic contains animal collagen, gelatin, keratin or bone, we now add this note: "If this comes from an animal that was not Islamically slaughtered, Darul Fatwa's school counts it as najis. Najasah on the skin must be washed off before prayer, and applying it without need is considered sinful in the Shafi^iyy school." There is no separate, milder grade for cosmetics.

Bones, skin, hair and feathers

• Gelatin and collagen from cattle bone or hide stay Doubtful · high unless the slaughter is confirmed. We now cite Darul Fatwa's teaching that the bones and skin of an animal that was not properly slaughtered are najis. Hydrolyzed collagen, collagen peptides and "bovine collagen" are included.
• Edible bone phosphate (E542) stays Doubtful · high, now citing the same Darul Fatwa teaching.
• L-cysteine (a dough conditioner) is now judged by the source on the label:
• source not stated: Doubtful · low, as before;
• from feathers or poultry: Doubtful · high;
• from human hair: Doubtful · high, and marked for scholars to review;
• fermented, synthetic, plant-based, vegan or "non-animal": Halal;
• from pig hair: Haram.
• Keratin (mostly in hair care) is new:
• source not stated: Doubtful · low, because it may come from sheep's wool, which is pure;
• from feathers, horn or hoof: Doubtful · high;
• from wool: Halal;
• from pigs: Haram.
• Bone broth and bone stock are now judged like meat: we check how the animal was slaughtered (chicken, beef, and so on). Pork bone broth is Haram.
• Bone char used to refine cane sugar is out of scope: it is a processing aid, not an ingredient, so cane sugar is not flagged. Leather goods are also out of scope.

Medicine

• Our description of a trustworthy doctor now includes "knowledgeable about the religious rulings that apply". The full list: Muslim; upright (avoids major sins and doesn't persist in minor ones; truthful); knowledgeable about the religious rulings that apply; qualified and skilled in the relevant field; knows your case; of the same gender where possible, unless necessity requires otherwise.

Confirmed without change

We kept these earlier choices as they were: artificial flavors, fragrance, explicitly plant-based ingredients, vinegars, cheese and enzymes, shortening and capsules, confectioner's glaze, glucosamine, unrecognized ingredients, milk ingredients, fatty alcohols, meat broths and fats, how halal certifiers clear doubts, slaughter checks, medicine advisories, and our 8 certifier policies.

Still under discussion (unchanged)

Polysorbates and similar emulsifiers (E480, E476), stearates, E635, pancreatin and animal lipase, chymosin and rennet casein, whether carmine, shellac and shellfish can ever be cleared, scaleless fish, soy sauce, which Darul Fatwa citations go with which rule, and HMS's stunning policy.

v0 (beta) · Revision 1 · 22 Sept 2026

• Initial ruleset: "Zulal Standard v0", cautious editorial rulings for food, cosmetics and medicine, following Darul Fatwa. Pork and blood are Haram; possible animal origin is Doubtful · low; explicitly animal ingredients and meat without confirmed hand slaughter are Doubtful · high; medicine never shows a bare "Haram" and points to a trustworthy Muslim doctor instead.