Waitrose forced to ditch halal lamb from Prince of Wales' Duchy range

Daily Mail ^ | 3rd October 2010 | Abul Taher

[george76]

Waitrose is to introduce a range of non-halal lamb products as a response to customers’ concerns about its meat supplies.

Until now, all lamb sold by the store has been slaughtered in accordance with Islamic law, with a Muslim reciting a prayer in Arabic over the meat.

But Waitrose said last night that, from now on, organic Welsh lamb from its Duchy Originals range – established by Prince Charles to market produce from his estates – will no longer be halal.

Waitrose said they made their decision in order to give customers ‘more choice’. But their reversal of policy comes a week after The Mail on Sunday revealed how most British supermarkets were secretly selling halal meat – especially lamb – without telling customers.

The investigation found that most New Zealand lamb sold in major British supermarkets was halal, meaning that the prayer ‘In the name of Allah, who is the greatest’ is said at the time of slaughter. Stores selling lamb slaughtered according to Islamic law included Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Sainsbury’s.

Patricia Dunton, 67, from Totteridge, North London, said she had been shopping in Waitrose for more than 30 years. Speaking before the Waitrose announcement, she said: ‘As a devout Christian, I won’t buy Duchy Originals lamb ever again, and I won’t buy lamb from Waitrose.I don’t like the fact that an Islamic prayer has been said over it. It should have been labelled so that I know what I am buying.’

A Morrisons spokeswoman said: ‘All our fresh meat is 100 per cent British and non-halal. Only our frozen New Zealand lamb is halal.’

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