RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONreflects the

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
reflects the management’s thorough adoption of
traceability system in their production processes. This Issues in Halal Traceability: There are some issues
study aims to look into the adoption of the forces of highlighted by the General Manager of the company.
traceability in a listed Halal food production company in For example, JAKIM takes too much time in issuing Halal
order to derive a higher level framework of Halal certificate. It takes about six months for approval and this
traceability which may become a guide to other Halal food does not include renewal of the Halal certificate, whereas,
production companies. Majlis Ugama Islam Singapore (MUIS) Halal certification
MATERIALS AND METHODS communication problems with Jabatan Kemajuan Islam
Drawing on literature from the topics of traceability, Halal certification because the officers in the department
a series of questions were designed to learn about the are busy with other work such as inspection, management
implementation of traceability in a Shariah-compliant food and others.
producing company. The researcher adopted interviews On the other hand, Halal certificate is only valid for
because it could be particularly useful for getting the two years as compared to previously the validation period
story behind a participant’s experiences as the interviewer was three years. Hence, it is difficult for companies to
can pursue in-depth information around the topic being manage their Halal certifications. If a company has
discussed. This was also supported by McNamara (1999) multiple products, they have to renew each product based
who argues that interviews are useful for detail on the expired date and for each product they have to wait
investigation from the informants [8]. Interviews with the six months to get a new period of Halal certification. The
personnel within the company were conducted to gain incidence of Halal certificate revocation occurred in 2006
deeper understanding of the management, production and where the company was involved with a large case which
system practices and processes. In the interaction all products were withdrawn from the market because of the raid made on the complaints of factory using gelatin Certification: All of the company’s products are certified
which is Haram. The incident cost the company about RM
50 million in losses and the company suffered from the
loss for several years. Even now they are still at the stage
of restoring the company’s reputation. It is very difficult
for them to get as many customers as before to be
confident of their products again. The incident also had
a big impact in Singapore because their products are
exported to Singapore also as they have 15 percent market
share in Singapore. To solve this problem, the marketing
and promotion departments were assigned to gain
customers’ awareness and to recover Muslims’
confidence from the negative publicity on the Halal status
of their products. The manner the company’s management
response to food recalls is based on the values of the
management which is sensitive to the Halal needs of the
consumers. The same result was found by Charlebois
(2011) that shown that values played a key role in crisis
management of the company under his study [11].
Adoption of Halal Traceability: From the interviews all
seven elements of traceability have been applied in the
management and production processes of the company.
According to the General Manager of the company, a
traceability system has been implemented in the
company’s production several years ago. It was to ensure
the high quality of their products were in line with the
market requirements compared to other companies.
Indirectly, this protected the company's reputation and
customers’ confidence had returned. They have also
looked at the increasing demand from the customers for
healthy food sets exacting requirements for a well
structured traceability system. This system may also help
them in maintaining their branding, ingredients, Halal
matters and their reputation.