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    • Home  / Food Story

    Is Umami Halal? The Honest, Detailed Answer

    September 26, 2026 4 min read

    We love short and simple. But when it comes to trust, detail is the shortcut.

    So today, we're going deep on our Halal-friendly journey.

    250+
    Halal-friendly classes since 2022
    1,200+
    Muslim customers
    ~85%
    of products are Halal-friendly
    The quick answer
    Umami Food Studio is not a Halal-certified facility yet. Since 2022, we've run Halal-friendly classes and made Halal-friendly products. Here's exactly what that means.
    The four questions we're asked most
    1. 1What "Halal-friendly" actually means at Umami
    2. 2Where our meat comes from, and why it took 20+ suppliers to find the right ones
    3. 3Every other ingredient: replaced, sourced certified, or checked line by line
    4. 4Why we're not Halal-certified yet, and what we're working toward

    This isn't the polished version. It's the honest one.
    We hope it helps you cook, book and order with complete peace of mind.

    01What does "Halal-friendly" mean at Umami?

    Far more than "no pork." We check the meat, sauces, additives, dough, cooking alcohol, even the cleaning chemicals in our kitchen.

    No pork
    Where a traditional recipe uses pork, we use chicken, beef or lamb.
    No alcohol in our cooking
    No mirin, sake, Shaoxing wine, Korean cooking alcohol or cooking wine.
    No hidden alcohol either
    Sauces with wine or brandy, alcohol-based vanilla extract, even our cleaning chemicals. We check them all.
    Halal-certified meat for everyone
    The same Halal-certified meat goes into our non-Halal classes too.
    Designated production days
    Non-Halal products are made only on set days, never alongside regular production, to reduce cross-contamination risk.

    02Where does our meat come from?

    Halal-certified suppliers. The same ones for every customer.

    We didn't want one standard of meat for Muslim customers and another for everyone else. Home cooks, corporate teams, professional chefs: same suppliers, same quality.

    Halal certification was only the starting point. Every supplier had to pass four tests.

    Test 1
    Halal-certified
    Non-negotiable.
    Test 2
    Consistently high quality
    "Fresh" isn't enough. Juiciness, tenderness, farming standards and cold-chain management.
    Test 3
    The right range
    About 25 beef cuts, mince in different fat ratios, skin-on chicken, bones for stock and much more.
    Test 4
    Reliable supply
    Consistent stock and dependable delivery.

    We tested more than 20 suppliers. Here's who made it.

    Beef & lamb
    Chalmar Beef & Lamb
    Family-run since 1969. Supplies some of South Africa's premium restaurants and butcheries. Halal-certified since 2019.
    Click to view the Halal certificate ↗
    Chicken
    Forsmay Muslim Butchery
    A broad range, including skin-on chicken, which is surprisingly hard to find from many Halal butchers.
    Click to view the SANHA Halal certification ↗
    Chicken
    Checkers
    SANHA Halal-certified fresh cuts for selected chicken products and classes. We use Forsmay or Checkers depending on the cut and availability.

    03What about everything else?

    Meat is only the beginning. We review every ingredient in every recipe.

    Certified, wherever we can

    If a Halal-certified ingredient exists without losing quality or flavour, we use it.

    Gyoza and wonton wrappers
    Imported from Singapore
    Gluten-free dumpling wrappers
    Made locally by a Halal-certified gluten-free specialist
    Rice paper
    Imported from Vietnam
    Rice flour and potato starch
    Imported from Thailand

    This list keeps growing as more importers bring Halal-certified Asian ingredients into South Africa.

    Checked line by line, where we can't

    No certified option? We don't reject the ingredient automatically. We find out what's actually in it.

    First, alcohol
    MirinSakeShaoxing wineKorean cooking alcoholSauces with wine or brandyVanilla extractCleaning chemicals
    Then, hidden animal-derived ingredients
    Gelatin (we use agar agar)Animal rennet in cheeseE471 / mono- and diglyceridesAnimal fatLardL-cysteine in dough

    Mozzarella, Parmesan and Pecorino can all use animal rennet. "Looks vegetarian" isn't good enough. The obvious ingredients are easy. We look for the hidden ones too.

    04So why aren't we Halal-certified yet?

    Not because we don't want to be. There are three practical reasons.

    Reason 1

    Many authentic Asian ingredients don't arrive certified

    We cook Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese food, so we rely on imported ingredients. Many are naturally Halal by composition: gochugaru is 100% chilli, sesame oil is 100% sesame, and many sauces are alcohol-free and vegan.

    Naturally Halal and Halal-certified are not the same thing.

    An ingredient can contain no pork, no alcohol and nothing animal-derived, and still carry no formal certification.

    Scale matters too. A 200 ml certified bottle from the supermarket is one thing. Enough stock, every time, at a commercially viable price, is another. For many authentic Asian ingredients, that's still hard to find.

    Reason 2

    Certifying our studio means giving up part of Umami

    Full certification isn't one product line. It means running the whole facility as 100% Halal production. At our size, in our current studio, we would have to stop certain Korean, Chinese and Japanese classes, and discontinue six Japanese products.

    For a brand built on food from across Asia, that's a big cut.

    Reason 3

    Certification is a significant monthly cost

    A Muslim supervisor, regular audits and ongoing monthly compliance.

    R25,000 to R35,000
    Our estimate of extra fixed costs, every month

    For a single studio our size, that's significant.

    So the plan isn't to avoid certification. The plan is a dedicated Halal studio: designed for Halal production from day one, with Halal-only classes, a dedicated product line and full certification.

    We're not there yet.

    What we can do now is be thorough about what we use, and completely open about how we work.

    Where a certified ingredient of equal quality exists, we use it. Where it doesn't, we tell you why, check what's inside, and stay clear that Umami itself isn't certified yet.

    Every class you book and every product you buy brings us one step closer to a fully Halal-certified Umami studio.

    Browse Halal-friendly classes →Shop Halal-friendly food →

    Thank you for growing with us.Rany Jo, Madame Umami