Halal ingredients checker: is this halal?
Checking with: General · StandardChangeProduct data from Open Food Facts, a free community database.
Recent checks
How to check if food is halal
Start with the pack. A recognised halal logo is the clearest answer. If there isn't one, read the ingredients: look for pork, gelatine, alcohol, animal rennet in cheese, carmine (E120) and animal fats, then check any E-numbers. This halal checker does all of that for you in a second. Scan the barcode in the shop, take a photo of the label if the product isn't found, or paste an ingredient list from a website. Every flagged ingredient comes with the reason, and the result follows the standard you choose, such as Hanafi or strict.
Try an example
What the halal ingredients checker looks for
The checker reads every ingredient and E-number in a list and sorts them into four groups:
| Result | Meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Haram | Not permissible | Pork, lard, pork gelatine, wine, spirits, blood |
| Doubtful (mushbooh) | Source not stated; could be halal or not | E471, gelatine with no source, glycerine, cheese with unstated rennet |
| Halal | Clearly permissible | Plant oils, sugar, pectin, soya lecithin, fish |
| No concern found | Not in our database and not a known concern | Salt, water, most vegetables and spices |
It knows 336 E-numbers and 126 named ingredients, and recognises many of them in French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish, Malay, Arabic and Russian, so imported labels work too.
Three ways to check a product: paste, barcode scanner or photo
- Paste or type the ingredients. Copy a list from a supermarket website, a menu or an email. This is the fastest way and works offline.
- Scan the barcode. The halal barcode scanner works online in your browser, with no app to install. It finds the product's ingredients in our saved UK list or in Open Food Facts, a free database of around 4 million products.
- Take a photo of the label. Useful when a barcode is missing or the product is new. The text is read on your phone and you can correct it before checking.
What leaves your device
- Pasted text: checked in your browser. It is not sent to us. The Share link contains the text, so whoever you send it to can read it.
- Label photos: read on your device and never uploaded. The first use downloads the text-reading software from jsDelivr, so that service sees your IP address, but not the photo.
- Camera scanning: the video stays on your device. Your browser asks for camera permission, and you can refuse it and type the barcode instead.
- Barcodes: the number is sent to Open Food Facts to fetch the product, so it receives the number and your IP address.
- Offline: pasted-text checks and products already in our own list work without a connection. Photo reading and the camera fallback may need a connection the first time.
The full list is in the privacy policy.
Choose your standard
Scholars differ on a few ingredients, so the checker lets you choose:
- School of thought on seafood: the general view allows all seafood; the Hanafi setting marks prawns, crab and other non-fish seafood as doubtful.
- Standard or strict: strict mode also flags the few ingredients that are Halal in the standard view but carry a small, unlikely concern, such as brewer's yeast, beta-carotene powders and vitamin D3. Ingredients whose source is unstated or disputed, such as flavourings, whey, tartaric acid and wine vinegar, are Doubtful in both modes.
- Carmine (E120): shown as haram (the default, following Darul Ifta Birmingham) or halal (following Indonesia's MUI). Shellac (E904) is not affected and stays doubtful either way.
Your choice is saved on your device and used everywhere on the site. See checking preferences.
What we found checking 1,308 products
We have run the same checks on 1,308 UK supermarket products using their published ingredients:
| Result | Products | Share |
|---|---|---|
| No haram or doubtful ingredients | 565 | 43.2% |
| Doubtful | 664 | 50.8% |
| Contains haram ingredients | 79 | 6.0% |
The most common reasons a product needed a closer look were flavourings with no stated source (514 products), an emulsifier with no stated source (118), whey (111), cheese with an unstated rennet (85) and E471 (70). The most common reason for Haram was pork (36 products). Doubtful means the label does not say enough, not that the product contains anything prohibited. Only 32 of the 1,308 products carried a halal label.
Each product is counted once, even when it is sold in several pack sizes, and every one has its own product page. The barcode scanner knows 1,419 barcodes, which includes those pack sizes.
What an ingredient check cannot tell you
An ingredient check depends on the label. It cannot see how meat was slaughtered, whether a factory separates halal and non-halal lines, or whether a recipe has changed since the label was printed. For meat, chicken and ready meals, look for a recognised halal certification as well.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check if a product is halal?
Look for a recognised halal logo first. If there is none, check the ingredients for pork, gelatine, alcohol, animal rennet and doubtful E-numbers, or paste the list into the halal ingredients checker.
Can I check halal status by barcode online?
Yes. Enter or scan the barcode and the checker looks up the ingredients in Open Food Facts and our saved UK products, then checks each one.
Is the halal checker accurate?
The checker is as accurate as the ingredient list it is given. It flags every known haram and doubtful ingredient and explains why, but it cannot replace certification for meat or detect recipe changes.
Does the halal checker use AI?
No. The checker matches ingredients against a curated database of E-numbers and ingredients written and checked by the site editor. Every result comes with its reason, and references are linked on the page where they exist.
Is the halal ingredients checker free?
Yes. It is free to use, needs no account, and works offline once the page has loaded.
Halal checker FAQ
Is this halal checker free?
Yes. Every scan, photo and pasted list is checked for free, with no account. The checking happens on your phone, so pasted lists also work offline once the page has loaded. Photo reading and the camera scanner load their readers from a content delivery network, so they may need a connection.
Does it work on any product?
Barcode lookups work for products in Open Food Facts and our UK product list. For anything else, take a photo of the ingredients or paste them — the checker reads labels in English and several other languages.
Why is something marked doubtful?
Some ingredients, like E471 or "flavourings", can come from plants or animals, and the label usually does not say which. We mark those as doubtful so you can look for a vegetarian label or a halal logo.
Is a "no issues" result the same as halal certified?
No. It means no haram or doubtful ingredients were found on the label. Certification also checks how the food was made and, for meat, how it was slaughtered.
Want the details? Read how we decide, browse the E-number list, or see how to read a label in 60 seconds.