School’s Halal Lamb Burger Is Actually 50 Percent Pork

Hopefully Allah gives Muslim students in Leicester a pass over supposedly halal-approved lamb burgers that ended up being almost 50 percent pork when they were tested.

Halal means “lawful” or “permitted,” and pertains to Islamic dietary laws. Foods that are considered “haram” are not to be consumed by Muslims, and while there are nuances to Islamic dietary law that we won’t get into here, we’ll save you some time by just saying that pork is a huge no-no.

So it wouldn’t surprise you to find out that a company supplying Leicester schools with food products has caused a bit of outrage when a DNA test on a supposedly halal lamb burger came back between 10 and 50 percent pork.

Doncaster-based Paragon Quality Foods Limited supplied the food, and said that they had never knowingly handled or processed pork.

A spokeswoman for the city council said that further testing will need to take place before they pursue meaningful action.

“Because it was only one burger that was tested and the findings were so wide-ranging, we have ordered further samples of more burgers and when we have these results we will publish them,” she said. “The council’s view is that whether it’s 1% or 99%, it’s still impure and unacceptable.”

All Paragon products have been removed from the schools, and authorities say that other halal products are supplied by a different company. They were tested and found to be a-ok.

The Muslim community, meanwhile, is understandably horrified by the halal lamb burger contamination. “The community will be extremely shocked and distressed to learn of the contamination that has taken place,” said Suleman Nagdi from the Federation of Muslim Organisations.

[Image via: Zereshk, Wikimedia Commons]