16 Oct Unfortunately there is no halal formula milk for 0-9 month old baby available in Japan because they contain Taurine…. (Hasrizal from Malaysia)
Regarding to your email about how to obtain ‘Halal Food’ in Sapporo, so here I want to share with you about that issue. For me if I want to buy the food in big quantity, I prefer to buy it from online shop http://www.baticrom.com/ , but if I want to buy it in small quantity I can find it in several halal shops in Sapporo like Warung Jawa (Zeus Building, Kita 14 Jyou Nishi 3 Chome), and Watan (ZEUS Bldg.B1F, 1-15, Kita 14, Nishi 3, Kita-ku, Sapporo ). I also sometimes obtain the halal food from KALDI in Aeon supermarket but the choice is limited.
In Sapporo, there are some restaurants that serve halal food i.e., Warung Jawa serve Indonesian food, Spice (Kita 18 Jyou Nishi 5 Chome) and Ram (Kita 31 Jyou Nishi 5 Chome) serve Indian food.
For baby formula milk, unfortunately there is no halal formula milk for 0-9 month old baby available in Japan because they contain Taurine, and according to some muslim blog Taurine is derived from ox bile. But for baby aged 9 months onwards some brand i.e., Tsuyoiko (Bean Stalk), Chirumiru (Morinaga) and Gun Gun (Wakodo) to be halal for consumption.
In case of emergency i.e., the mothers have not enough breast milk, some suggest to use Bean Stalk products, Sukoyaka (0-9 month) and Tsuyoiko (9 month plus). And both brand seem to be the choice for many Japanese muslim mama and my Malaysian friends also preferred to use this brand for their child. But in my case, my wife gave breast feed my son until his 2 years old and we have no problem about using formula milk.
There are some ingredient that always concern by muslim people who live in Japan and we try to avoid them, as listed below :
豚肉、ポーク (pork)
牛肉、ビーフ (beef)
鶏肉、 チッキン (chicken)
べこん (bacon)
豚肉エキス、ポーク
牛肉エキス、ビーフ
鶏肉エキス、チッキン
ラード (pork fat)
ラ油 (pork oil)
ゼラチン (gelatin)
マーガリン (margarine)- we can use if from plant/ vegetable
乳化剤 – we can use if from plant/ vegetable
ショートニング (shortening)- we can use if from plant/ vegetable
アルコール (alcohol), リキュール
酒 ： 洋酒 (youshu), 酒精 (shusei), 酒糟 (sakekasu)
みりん (red wine)
But I understand that living in Japan is very difficult to find 100% halal food, so in certain situations we as muslim people have an excuses i.e., the use the formula milk for baby and the medicine.
