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Council Members Won and Farías challenge the city's halal certification verification process
0:43:54
·
91 sec
Council Members Julie Won and Amanda Farías express serious concerns about the city's verification process for halal certification, questioning its reliability and enforcement mechanisms.
- Won points out that current certification processes may not involve physical inspections of kitchens or food preparation
- Farías emphasizes the need for accountability and potential penalties in contracts for non-compliance
- Both council members stress the importance of properly serving New Yorkers and maintaining religious standards in food service
Julie Won
0:43:54
So it's come to our attention for both of us from the Muslim community that the current certification process that the city is using for certain agencies like H and H is not verified.
0:44:06
It is being done like a piece of paper from an entity in Florida saying, sure, you're halal certified, but did you come and inspect the kitchen?
0:44:15
Did you come and see how the food is separated?
0:44:17
Did you come and physically see that this is indeed halal or kosher?
0:44:22
No.
0:44:22
This is a piece of paper from an entity in a different state with no inspectors in the city Of New York saying that, sure, this is halal, and we are seeing that it isn't.
0:44:32
So what this what chair Farias is asking you is what is the city's verification process for halal certification, and why are we allowing third party inspections to guarantee us that something as serious as religious standards and religious compliance for people's food consumption is done out of state and Florida online or on the phone.
Amanda Farías
0:44:53
And if we're going to leave enforcement to the to the vendors themselves and we have to have in our contract some level of accountability, not just corrective action but a penalty or removal of contract if we're if they're found to not have the actual certification.
0:45:08
I mean, we're leaving too much onus and responsibility whether that's because we're not asking for more money in the budget to have more staffing to make sure we have the certifications or not but we're trying to make sure that we're properly serving New Yorkers.
0:45:23
I would like to come back to
Kate MacKenzie
0:45:25
you once we have a chance to speak with our colleagues at H and H and across more detail and come back with the specifics about what the standards in the contracts are along as what the verification process is.