Gurgaon based customer Mr. Kumar on Sunday was shocked to receive a packet of cut chicken meat that read both jhatka and halal on its pack from online grocery store BigBasket. While on the front of the packet, it said ‘halal cetified’ while the product detail sticker said ‘jhatka chicken’.
The video of the product was shared on social media by Twitter user @Ruchhan.
A friend ordered Jhatka Chicken and @bigbasket_com delivered halal chicken. 2-in-1 pic.twitter.com/hYElH5uiD2
— वोक श्री सनीचर (चायिना एक्स्पर्ट। 中国母亲的博萨达) 🌈 (@Ruchhan) September 20, 2020
As one can see, the product label read ‘jhatka’ chicken while the box label reads as ‘halal’ certified. Jhatka and halal are methods of slaughtering the animal for food consumption.
When contacted, the BigBasket customer care clarified to Mr Kumar that it was jhatka chicken only and probably was put in a wrong packet that by default read ‘halal certified’, however they refunded the money.
“I appreciate their quick support and resolution, but this is a problem that should be solved. An element of trust must be there. I am willing to trust that BigBasket made a genuine mistake and maybe they didn’t want to cheat the customer, but it’s high time a proper Jhatka certification agency comes up,” Kumar told OpIndia.
Jhatka Vs Halal debate
BigBasket had earlier come under fire for selling discriminatory ‘halal’ only products. However, after online backlash, the online grocery store had made jhatka meat available as well. It is pertinent to note that nowadays many food products are label as ‘Halal’ certified, which means not only that the products are manufactured according to Islamic practices, but many times it also means that only Muslims are employed in the entire production and packaging chain of such Halal certified products.
For example, the guidelines for preparing Halal certified meat make it abundantly clear that only Muslim employees are allowed to participate in the entire process at every stage from slaughtering to packaging, and if any non-Muslim is involved in the process, the product becomes Haram, or not allowed as per Islam.
Moreover, ‘halal only’ meat is also discriminatory for those people whose religion forbids them from consuming halal meat. Example, Sikhism forbids consumption of halal meat. Only jhatka meat is allowed. Official Khalsa code of conduct categorically forbids consumption of halal meat.
After severe backlash, BigBasket made ‘jhatka’ meat available on its website.
