KUALA LUMPUR: Chicken retailers may be required to display information on their slaughterhouses and halal certification bodies under a proposed new regulation.
Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Minister Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali (pic) said the ministry was prepared to introduce a requirement under the Trade Descriptions Act compelling retailers to disclose where chicken was slaughtered and which authority certified its halal status.
He said the proposal would be discussed with state religious authorities, local councils and the Health Ministry as the matter involves several agencies.
“We can introduce a regulation under the Trade Descriptions Act so that consumers at retail level can know where the chicken was slaughtered and which authority certified its halal status,” he said when winding up committee-stage debates on the Supply Bill 2027 in Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
Armizan said inspections at authorised slaughterhouses should also be carried out regularly, rather than waiting for complaints or problems to emerge.
He said state religious authorities were responsible for halal certification, while local councils approved business premises and the ministry enforced laws against misleading trade descriptions.
On another matter, Armizan said savings from reducing the quota for subsidised cooking oil packets would be channelled towards stabilising bottled cooking oil prices, rather than withdrawing subsidies.
He said the quota for subsidised cooking oil packets had been cut from 66,000 to 55,000 tonnes, with a further reduction to 50,000 tonnes planned.
“The Cabinet has agreed that we can use the savings to intervene when crude palm oil prices are high.”
Armizan said crude palm oil prices reached RM4,400 per tonne in October, which could have pushed the price of a 5kg bottle of cooking oil to RM34.
However, the ministry’s intervention mechanism had kept the ceiling price at RM30.90, he said, adding that the bottled cooking oil industry was facing mounting cost pressures, with one manufacturer having stopped production.
“The subsidised packet cooking oil programme had been subject to internal and external audits following a Cabinet decision to review its implementation.”
The Auditor-General’s Department had conducted an audit, with its findings tabled in Parliament before being referred to the Public Accounts Committee.
Armizan said smuggling and leakages had undermined the programme, prompting the ministry to introduce the eCOSS system to track subsidised cooking oil along the supply chain, from repackers to consumers.
The eCOSS system tracks the movement of subsidised 1kg packets of palm cooking oil, sold at a fixed ceiling price of RM2.50, from refineries to individual consumers to prevent hoarding, smuggling and leakages.
