Since the start of halal certification activities, many certification companies have been established and many halal standards have been published. Islamic countries determine their own halal requirements within the framework of their religious and cultural views, and even certification bodies can set their own standards and issue halal certificates within the framework of these standards. Therefore, there is multi-headedness among Islamic countries in halal certification, and the halal certificate obtained from one country may not be accepted in another country. This situation may require producers who need to obtain halal certificates for their products to obtain separate certificates for each country they will export to, thus causing them to incur more costs and workload. This additional cost and workload are reflected in the prices of the products and consumers are also affected by this multi-headed structure.
Eliminating this fragmented structure in halal certification and ensuring unity among Islamic countries is possible through the establishment of a common halal quality infrastructure based on the accreditation mechanism. In order to establish this halal quality infrastructure, a new international structure called “Islamic Forum of Halal Accreditation Bodies (IFHAB)”, which will function as an umbrella organization for halal accreditation bodies and will be an OIC-affiliated organization, has been established.

At the 4th Meeting of the SMIIC Accreditation Council Management held in Istanbul on June 20, 2022, a Task Force Group (TGG) was established under the chairmanship of our Agency to establish the legislative infrastructure that will enable mutual recognition. This Task Force Group has started to prepare the necessary documents for the structure to be established.
At the 49th Meeting of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers held in Mauritania/Nuakşot on 16-17 March 2023, it was decided to establish the “Islamic Forum for Halal Accreditation Bodies (IFHAB)” based in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and having the status of an affiliate organization of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

At the 6th Meeting of the SMIIC MAC held in Istanbul on 6-7 September 2023, the basic legislative infrastructure of IFHAB was established with the acceptance of the IFHAB documents prepared by the TFG by the SMIIC MAC and the activities of the TFG for the establishment of IFHAB were successfully completed under the leadership of our country.
Finally, the first General Assembly Meeting of IFHAB was held on November 1, 2023 in Makkah al-Mukarramah. At the meeting, it was decided that the interim board of directors would consist of 9 members, including our Organization. It was also reported that the official website of IFHAB was established and launched with the domain address https://www.ifhab.org.
The first Board of Directors Meeting of the organization was held in Riyadh on 29 May 2024 and the President of our Agency, Mr. Zafer Soylu, attended the meeting. During the meeting, a task force group was established to review and finalize IFHAB documents and this group held its first meeting online on August 27, 2024.

Duties

As stated in the IFHAB Statute and on its website, in summary, IFHAB's tasks are as follows
- To ensure global confidence in products and services with the Halal logo.
- To contribute to the establishment of an open and transparent system for Halal products and services in accordance with Islamic provisions and technical requirements and in line with international practices.
- To establish standards of trust that will apply to trade in Halal products and services between OIC Member Countries and globally.
- To unify the procedures and practices of Halal accreditation activities in Islamic countries.
- To ensure that a Halal certificate accredited in one of the member countries is accepted by other members without the need for additional audits through multilateral recognition agreements.
- To develop accreditation infrastructure in OIC member countries to achieve international recognition in the field of Halal.

Importance

Today, some Islamic countries require a halal certificate for the products they will import and require that this halal certificate be obtained from a certification body determined by itself or from a certification body accredited by its own accreditation body. Thus, both manufacturers are forced to obtain more than one document and certification bodies need to be accredited by different accreditation bodies. It is clear that this will cause an increase in product costs and disrupt trade between countries.
The importance of mutual recognition of halal certificates and therefore the importance of IFHAB emerges here. Accreditation bodies recognizing each other's accredited certification bodies will prevent duplicate certifications and accreditations. IFHAB, which is of great importance for both producers, consumers and certification bodies, will remove the barriers to trade between OIC member countries and globally and at the same time increase the trust in halal certificates. It will be sufficient for an exporter to obtain a halal certificate accredited by one of the member accreditation bodies of IFHAB, and there will be no need to obtain a different halal certificate from other member countries. A similar situation will be valid for certification bodies, and if they are accredited by one of the member accreditation bodies, they will be recognized by other members.

Member Accreditation Bodies

Currently, 24 accreditation bodies representing 23 countries are members of IFHAB. There are observer members from 3 countries.