Malaysia's halal agencies

The federal halal competent authority. Its Halal Management Division (Bahagian Pengurusan Halal, BPH) checks application documents, audits products and premises, issues the Malaysian halal certificate and licenses the Halal Malaysia logo, verifies foreign slaughterhouses, and recognises foreign halal certification bodies.

The old name is gone: the "Halal Hub Division" was split on 3 December 2018 into BPH and the Malaysia Halal Council Secretariat. A consultant still saying "Halal Hub" is describing a structure that no longer exists.

Link warning: www.jakim.gov.my is dead — the domain has no DNS record at all. The live JAKIM portal is islam.gov.my.

JAKIM's operational portal: the MYeHALAL online application, halal status verification search (food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, medical devices), the recognised foreign certification body list, circulars, and the e-Aduan complaints channel.

This is where an application is physically submitted. Note that myehalal.halal.gov.my now redirects to halal.gov.my — many guides still link it as if it were a separate system.

Two different things, not synonyms. JAIN is the state Islamic religious Department — the operational and audit arm (JAIS in Selangor, for example). MAIN is the state Islamic religious Council, the statutory religious authority.

Why the states are directly involved: Islam is a state matter under the Federal Constitution, not a federal one. Under the Trade Descriptions (Certification and Marking of Halal) Order 2011, the authorities empowered to certify are JAKIM and the state MAIN. In practice JAKIM coordinates while the JAIN carries out state-level audits.

13 states + 3 federal territories = 16 jurisdictions. JAKIM covers KL, Putrajaya and Labuan directly. The link above is JAIS (Selangor) as an example; we did not verify all 13 state sites individually.

The national standards body and the national accreditation body. JSM develops and publishes the MS halal standards — it does not certify anyone halal. It also accredits laboratories and certification bodies.

The core standard: MS 1500 — Halal food: production, preparation, handling and storage. The current edition is MS 1500:2019 (replacing MS 1500:2009). It is the technical backbone of JAKIM's food certification. The MS 2200 series covers Islamic consumer goods including cosmetics, and the MS 2400 series covers transportation, warehousing and retailing.

You must comply with these to be certified, so you need to buy them from JSM. But you apply to JSM for nothing halal.

The national standards-development agency and a testing provider. SIRIM QAS International offers management system certification (ISO 9001 and so on), product certification, product testing, inspection and personnel certification.

SIRIM does not issue halal certificates. SIRIM QAS's own site does not mention halal certification anywhere, which is consistent with the legal position that only JAKIM and the state MAIN may certify halal in Malaysia. Anyone offering "SIRIM halal certification" is wrong.

You may deal with SIRIM for laboratory testing or ISO certification a customer asks for — not for halal.

Regulatory control of medicinal products and cosmetics. A manufacturer must go to NPRA for:

• Cosmetic notification — every cosmetic product must be notified before it reaches the market. NPRA can and does cancel notifications.
• Product registration for pharmaceuticals, traditional medicines and health supplements, through the QUEST3+ system.
• Manufacturing licences and GMP compliance.

This comes before halal, not after it. No notification number means no legal product — and a halal certificate does not substitute for one. A factory can be halal-certified and still be selling an unnotified product.

Administers and enforces the Food Act 1983 and the Food Regulations 1985 — food safety, labelling, additives, food premises inspection, sampling, and import food control.

Also upstream of halal. JAKIM's halal audit assumes you already meet Food Act requirements.

Link warning: fsq.moh.gov.my is dead — no DNS record. Recent guides still cite it. We could not find a working standalone URL for BKKM; use moh.gov.my.

The clearest agency-to-agency mechanism in the whole system: for a foreign abattoir or poultry plant to supply Malaysia, DVS and JAKIM conduct a JOINT inspection. DVS assesses animal health and food safety; JAKIM assesses halal compliance. Only when both approve does the plant join Malaysia's authorised plant list.

Each consignment then needs an import licence, a veterinary health certificate, and a halal certificate from a JAKIM-recognised body.

Mandatory if you slaughter, process meat or poultry, or import animal-origin raw material. Irrelevant to a purely cosmetic plant — except that animal-derived ingredients such as gelatine, collagen or glycerin pull you straight back in.

The authority under the Malaysian Quarantine and Inspection Services Act 2011 (Act 728), operational since 1 March 2013. It controls the import of anything biological — food, live animals, plants, soil, microorganisms — and issues import and export permits, notably for meat and milk.

MAQIS is not a halal body and its site does not mention halal at all. Its relevance is indirect but real: it is the gate your halal-certified raw material physically passes through, and a missing MAQIS permit stops a consignment regardless of halal status.

This is the body that actually prosecutes halal offences, and manufacturers routinely do not know it.

KPDN enforces the Trade Descriptions Act 2011 and its two halal orders, in force since 1 November 2011. Those orders (a) define "halal" in law, (b) restrict the issuing of halal certification to JAKIM and the state MAIN, and (c) make it an offence to display a halal logo or halal description without valid certification.

There is no application to make. But you are exposed to it the moment you use the word "halal". JAKIM grants the certificate; KPDN raids you for misusing it.

The policy ministry. HDC, MATRADE, MIDA, SME Corp and Standards Malaysia all sit under MITI — meaning MITI houses both the halal promotion machinery and the standards machinery, while certification stays with JAKIM under the Prime Minister's Department.

Name warning: MITI was formerly the Ministry of International Trade and Industry; it was renamed in December 2023 to the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry. The acronym did not change, which is why the old expansion survives everywhere — including on some official pages.

HDC certifies nothing. It is an industry development agency: training, consultancy, business matching, investment and export facilitation, and the Halal Industry Master Plan. It also runs the HALMAS halal park scheme.

You never need HDC to get certified. It is relevant only if you want HALMAS park tax incentives, grants or export handholding. Many consultants blur this distinction.

Name warning: formerly Halal Industry Development Corporation Sdn Bhd. Both names still circulate.

Export promotion: market intelligence, trade events, export financial assistance, and an exporter directory. MATRADE organises MIHAS, Malaysia's international halal showcase.

Optional, not obligatory — useful for export grants and buyer matching.

Malaysia's largest halal trade show. The 22nd edition is scheduled for 23–26 September 2026 at MITEC Kuala Lumpur, across 14 industry segments.

For a contract manufacturer this is where brand owners gather — its value is buyer matching, not compliance.

Investment promotion, manufacturing licence approvals, and tax incentives. It administers investment incentives for halal-related manufacturing, including those attached to the HALMAS parks.

You deal with it for a manufacturing licence and if claiming incentives. Incentive terms change with every budget — confirm directly with MIDA before relying on any figure.

The central coordinating agency for SMEs: development programmes, grants and capacity building, including support for SMEs building halal export capability.

We could not verify from SME Corp itself whether a specific halal certification grant is currently open. Ask them directly rather than relying on third-party grant listings.

Halal research, postgraduate programmes, customised industry training, and the INHART Laboratory, which provides analytical testing on halal and toyyiban parameters — porcine DNA and alcohol detection among them.

The lab is practically useful: ingredient authentication testing is often what settles a halal audit query. INHART does not issue halal certificates.

Link warning: the old address inhart.iium.edu.my is completely dead, but still looks live in search results.