Halal foods expand their reach in France

But on a recent afternoon, Benchamacha stood in quiet wonderment before the tidy rows of packaged cold cuts in Hal’Shop, a new supermarket in this middle-class Paris suburb, a few aisles away from the cans of foie gras and bottles of nonalcoholic champagne — all of them halal, or permitted under Islam.

“I came here on the first day of its opening,” she said. “It’s good that things are changing in this country.” France has the largest population of Muslims in Europe, about 6 million, and even as they listen to the country debate the terms of their integration into French society, they are having a major impact on the food culture.

Whether a reflection of their sheer numbers or the rising incomes of second-and third-generation Muslim immigrants, the market in halal goods is nearly twice the size of the market for organic food.

Cultural loyalties

France is clearly worried about the cultural loyalties of its Muslims and what that may mean for the future. The lower house of parliament voted overwhelmingly this summer to ban the wearing of full facial veils in public places, and the Senate is expected to take up the matter in the coming months. The expansion of halal has also stirred protest, with some government officials denouncing it as spreading ‘sectarianism’ and inviting discrimination against non-Muslims.

Proponents of the phenomenon agree that the expanding array of halal foods here is a sign that the blending of religion, commerce and culture has been more extensive than many realise. But they have a very different take on the trend.

“It’s a sign of integration,” said Abbas Bendali, the director of Solis, a market research agency who says the halal market is growing nearly 10 per cent a year and should reach about $5.7 billion. The younger segment of France’s Muslim population, he said, “no longer lives with the myth of returning to their home country.”

Regardless of the emotions it stirs, the growth of halal in France is undeniable. In the last five years alone, spending per household on halal food has grown 20-fold, according to ‘Le Figaro’. Halal offerings have also moved upscale, from the traditional neighbourhood butcher who sold meat slaughtered in accordance with Islamic law, to a significant presence in French food industries, supermarkets and even restaurants.

A number of major French supermarkets devote entire aisles to halal food products. One supermarket chain, Auchan, carries certified-halal cured meat products, along with 40 kinds of halal frozen goods and about 30 precooked halal meals.

Even iconic French charcuterie and catering brands like Fleury Michon, Herta and Pierre Martinet have introduced halal lines, while Evian put a halal stamp on some of its bottles to reassure its Muslim clientele that the bottles had never been in close contact with alcohol, which would render the water ‘haram,’ or unclean.

The gleaming aisles of Hal’Shop, which opened last year, bear little resemblance to the blood-stained walls of the halal butcher shops of Paris’ working-class neighbourhoods. Hal’Shop has 1,600 products, including traditional French dishes like boeuf carottes and cervelas de volaille; cans of foie gras; and bottles of Night Orient, an alcohol-free champagne made from grape pressings.

While many see the growing popularity of halal as a sign of tolerance and modernity in the context of ‘laicite’ some have condemned the expansion of halal as threatening and often uncontrollable, a sign of increased religious dogmatism and even Muslim radicalism among young people.