Halal meat more tender, less cruel, say experts. Even as the UK Parliament refuses to servehalal meat at restaurants on its premises, fresh scientific opinion suggests halal is the better option. TOI investigates.
For Mohammad Salim, owner of a tiny meat shop in the Gurdwara Road Market of New Delhi’s Kotla Mubarakpur area, business is just as it’s been for the last 15 years since he moved to the capital from Agra. There seem to be more takers for mutton that Sunday morning than for the fresh batch of Rohu that’s just arrived. The practising Muslim packs half kilo curry pieces of a leg of mutton in polythene. For this seller of halal meat, the recent debate over the UK parliament rejecting demands to serve halal meat in its restaurants, on grounds of cruelty, is pointless.
“We read a kalma (Quranic verse) before the meat is cut. Lekin, marta toh murga hi hai (Finally, it’s the animal that pays the price). It’s just a question of using different methods of slaughter,” he shrugs.
The Expert’s Thought: There are innumerable health benefits of eating meat. It serves as a fabulous source of high quality proteins, which a single vegetarian food is not able to provide. It contains all the essential amino acids that the body requires.
