Sucipto

Halal Compliance on Drinking Water Industries: A Future Perspective

Demand of halal-certified drinking water is still debatable and this idea has been criticized as being overboard. From the Islamic perspective, clean water is required for direct consumption, cleaning of the human body (istinja’), and particularly important for ablution purposes. However, in this modern era, water has become an economic commodity and being traded as bottled water or tap water. Bottled and tap water go through extensive treatment and being produced via several steps of purification and separation processes. Some suggested halal critical control points during the treatment process should observe; the use of ion exchange and chelate resins during water softening process or polishing to produce ultra-pure water, the utilization of activated carbon as absorbent during pre-treatment process, and the use of harmful chemicals during disinfection process. For instance, pig-derived products were being used as charcoal powder and activated carbon in the production of drinking water. Thus, this forms a basis to the idea of novel halal compliance during water treatment for bottled or tap water and proposition of Halal Toyyiban Critical Control Points (HTCCP) for industrial drinking water. The awareness of halal standard is an important aspect in the production of drinking water in which the industries involved are required to comply with the standard requirement. The use of novel technology such as membrane technology might replace activated carbon technology for purification of drinking water.