Halal or not? Exploring Muslim perceptions of cultured meat in Singapore

Abstract

Singapore was the first country to approve cultured meat for public consumption. However, it remains unclear whether Muslims, who adhere to religious dietary restrictions and constitute a significant proportion of Singapore's population, are willing to consume cultured meat. Informed by the cognitive miser model, this study explores how Muslims make sense of cultured meat through their religious beliefs, trust in different stakeholders, as well as their risk or benefit perceptions of cultured meat. The findings from online focus group discussions showed that Muslim participants would only consider consuming cultured meat if it is certified halal (i.e., compliant with Islamic laws) and they also voiced religious concerns about cultured meat. Muslims have strong trust in food regulatory authorities in providing information about the safety and halal status of cultured meat. In addition to religious concerns, Muslims had similar risk and benefit perceptions of cultured meat compared to those of the non-Muslims. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

Examining Muslims’ Opinions Toward Cultured Meat in Singapore: The Influence of Presumed Media Influence and Halal Consciousness

“…The intention to consume, as captured in our study, reflects individuals future behavior, with the assumption that cultured meats will eventually attain halal certification in the future. Focus group discussions with Singaporean Muslims revealed that Muslims are unwilling to try cultured meat without halal certification (Ho et al, 2023). Hence, it is important to emphasize that our finding is contingent upon the future halal status of cultured meat.…”

“…Other studies (e.g., Usman et al, 2021) found that halal-conscious Muslims are more discerning and take a more active stance in selecting and seeking information on the products that they consume and are more likely to proactively seek and pay attention to existing coverage of cultured meat in local media. In the context of cultured meat in Singapore, previous focus group discussions found that Singaporean Muslims are generally aware of the potential environmental and food security benefits of cultured meat (Ho et al, 2023), in line with the media coverage of cultured meat in Singapore's local newspaper. Therefore, we propose that:…”

“…The attitudes of Singapore's Muslim community are important to understand due to previously highlighted challenges of cultured meat in attaining halal certification (Hamdan et al, 2018;Kashim et al, 2023). A recent focus group study (Ho et al, 2023) found that Muslims in Singapore would only eat cultured meat if it was certified as halal by Singapore's local religious authority. This highlights the importance placed on halal practices and foods within Islam and the Muslim community.…”

“…A focus group study found that Muslim Singaporeans would not eat cultured meat if it was not given halal certification by Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS), a government statuary board overseeing Muslim affairs in Singapore (Ho et al, 2023). This finding aligns with previous studies examining the potential halal status of cultured meat which indicated that Muslims would not choose cultured meat products without halal certification (Hamdan et al, 2018;Hassan et al, 2022) and is in line with findings from a study on British Muslims and their views on the requirement of cultured meat to be certified halal (Boereboom et al, 2022).…”

“…Therefore, it is crucial for the cultured meat industry to consider the halal status of cultured meat and Muslims' perceptions of it. While there are several qualitative studies on this topic (Hamdan et al, 2018;Ho et al, 2023;Kashim et al, 2023), quantitative studies on Muslims' views toward cultured meat, particularly those in relation to the effects of halal consciousness, are currently lacking. This study aims to address this gap by contributing to the understanding of Muslims' opinions toward cultured meat through a quantitative survey study that can provide more generalizable findings as compared to the current literature based on qualitative studies.…”