Waitrose is set to introduce non-halal lamb in the Prince of Wales’ Duchy range following complaints from customers.
Prince Charles launched the Duchy Originals range in 1990 to raise the profile of organic food, and last week a newspaper revealed that all of the lamb sold by Waitrose was halal.
A spokesman for Prince Charles, who will become the Supreme Governor of the Church of England when he becomes King, said he was unaware that the Duchy Original Lamb was being killed in accordance with Islamic law.
Halal
But from now on all of Waitrose’s organic Welsh lamb from the Duchy range will no longer be halal.
Halal meat is prepared according to Sharia law by cutting an animal’s throat while a Muslim butcher recites a religious verse.
The upmarket store’s about-turn comes a week after an investigation by The Mail on Sunday revealed that most of the New Zealand lamb being sold in the UK had been slaughtered according to Islamic law.
Option
In response to inquiries by the newspaper a spokesman for Waitrose said: “We have decided to offer our customers an option to buy lamb which has not received the halal blessing.”
However, all the store’s other lamb products will remain halal and will not be labelled as such.
A number of other supermarkets have also said they will continue to sell halal meat without identifying it as such.
Tesco
A spokesman for Tesco said: “Pre-stunned meat produced to halal standards conforms to all our stringent hygiene and animal welfare standards.”
A spokeswoman for Morrisons said: “All our fresh meat is 100 per cent British and non-halal. Only our frozen New Zealand lamb is halal.”
And Sainsbury’s said they could not label any of their lamb as halal, as the abattoirs they source their lamb from do not have official Islamic certificates even if they kill animals according to strict Muslim law.
Islamic
Last week The Mail on Sunday revealed that Britain’s biggest supermarkets were selling Islamic halal meat without marking it as such on the packaging.
The newspaper found that Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Somerfield, the Co-op, Waitrose and Marks and Spencer (M&S) all stocked halal meat.
Jim Paice, Government Minister for Agriculture and Food, said: “People should know what they’re buying in the shops or when they’re eating out and I will be discussing with the food industry the role labelling can play in giving consumers a choice.”
The Mail on Sunday’s investigation also revealed that fast food chains Domino’s Pizza, KFC, Pizza Hut, Nando’s and Subway all currently sell halal meat without telling customers.