Seymour defends non-halal certified school lunches, saying certification expense ‘not justified’

Friday, 14 February 2025

Lunches provided as halal to Muslim children are not halal-certified, they are “halal-friendly”.

Seymour has defended the lunches, saying they are halal and he did not believe the expense to go fully halal-certified would be justified.

Compass boss says he “sincerely appreciates the sensitivity” and wants to “further improve”.

David Seymour has defended the lunches provided to Muslim students at Papatoetoe Intermediate, saying the food was halal, but he did not believe the expense to go fully halal certified would be justified.

After Stuff’s reporting on Friday, Labour called for him to apologise, saying the blunder had broken trust with Muslim communities and had resulted in disrespect to the students’ faith.

“The Healthy School lunch programme is Halal friendly, and has always said so. The only ones misleading here are Labour,” Seymour said.

'Halal lunches are prepared separately, with no pork, and Halal certified chicken and beef. However, to go to fully Halal certified would require the massive expense of separate preparation facilities, packaging, and distribution processes. I don’t believe that expense would be justified.”

He went on to say Labour did not have credibility when it comes to the school lunch programme.

“They spent an extra $130m each year for lunches that Jan Tinetti herself described as “disgraceful”,“ Seymour said.

“In reality, I’m sure students are grateful they are receiving a nutritious hot meal provided by the taxpayer.”

Principal of Papatoetoe Intermediate School in South Auckland, Pauline Cornwell, wrote to her school community on Thursday to alert them to the fact that the School Lunches Collective meals were not certified as halal.

“From the time the lunch provider was announced I have been seeking assurances that the lunches provided to our Muslim students are certified as halal,” she wrote.

“Our previous providers were required to have certification. Yesterday I had confirmation that while the meat sourced is halal the kitchens are not certified.”

Halal is an Arabic term for “permissable”, and is an Islamic dietary standard referring not only to the food, but the way it is prepared.

In an email seen by Stuff, Paul Harvey, the New Zealand Managing Director of Compass, which heads the School Lunch Collective programme, confirmed the lunches are “halal friendly”, and not halal certified.

“I sincerely appreciate the sensitivity around this and would welcome the opportunity to discuss with you and others on how we could further improve upon this as we move forward.”

In response, Cornwell wrote, “with respect … an item is either halal or it is not. Stating something is halal implies it adheres to Islamic law in regards to the killing and preparation of food”.

“Saying food is ‘halal friendly’ when it obviously does not meet the requirements, disregards the importance of this for our Muslim community and is disrespectful of their religion and culture.

“It would be better not to pretend … say you do not provide food that meets Islamic requirements.”

Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand (FIANZ) operations manager Sultan Eusoff said certification gave confidence to the consumer, ensuring that the halal integrity of the food was respected at all times. FIANZ is an approved Islamic Halal Certification body.

Although food could be halal without certification, Eusoff said the formal process means consumers can be assured no corners had been cut in the preparation of the food.

Responding to questions from Stuff, Harvey said, “Our meals are made with halal certified beef and chicken ingredients, and they do not contain pork or pork containing ingredients.

“Our team are very well trained, and we have very strict cleaning and wash down procedures between each meal production, although our facility is not Halal certified. Therefore, we class our meals as ‘Halal Friendly’.

“We are open to engaging with the Islam community to see how we may be able to develop our halal meals further. We recommend individuals with halal requirements exercise personal discretion and assess their comfort levels before consuming our meals.”

Cornwell also wrote to Ministers David Seymour and Erica Stanford, that her school had had assurances that the food being prepared for Muslim students was halal, and that the discovery the kitchens were not certified, “will not be acceptable to our Muslim families and they are likely to be extremely upset. I am expecting a backlash … I am disappointed that the Government did not check that this very basic requirement was included in the contract”.

In further correspondence seen by Stuff, former MP Dr Ashraf Choudhary wrote, “It’s shocking that care is not being taken to ensure that school lunches and their preparation places are not certified halal”.

“This is not acceptable.”

The Ministry of Education’s Ka Ora, Ka Ako website says lunch providers must offer safe options for all children including those who “eat according to religious beliefs, such as halal food”.