Sattvik Council of India, which claims to be the world’s first third-party vegetarian and vegan certification body and standards developer, has officially launched a new office in Singapore, Sattvik Certifications Singapore (SCSG).
The services offered by SCSG, under the leadership of Director Venkataraman Kumar, encompass testing, inspection, and certification solutions for various industries and their products, including F&B, food service and hospitality, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, textiles, and cleaning.
Additionally, the SCSG also launched a Buddhist manual for Singapore’s vegetarian and vegan Buddhist community. The firm is working on similar codes which will be launched in the United States and Canada by end of this year, the New Delhi-based firm said.
Sattvik Certification founder Abhishek Biswas said the firm will launch similar codes for vegetarian and vegan foods in Indonesia next month, adding that there was a strong demand for such certified food from an estimated 1.9 billion people who would be consuming plant-based foods by 2030.
“The demand for vegetarian and vegan food is huge across the world and Sattvik certification is among a few groups that are taking initiatives to certify food manufacturers and laboratories to assure healthy meals are served,” Biswas told PTI at the launch of Buddhist Codex by Sattvik Certifications Singapore Pte Ltd.
What is Sattvik Certification?
Sattvik Council of India is the “WORLD’S FIRST VEGETARIAN” food safety and regulatory compliance for vegetarian and allied adherents. It came up with an ideology to take initiative and create a Food Safety Environment especially for the vegetarian’s consumers of India and global markets by creating SOPs in all applicable areas potential for guaranteeing 100% Vegetarian environment and further transforming Sattvik Certification into education and training of the personnel for establishing a robust food safety and quality system.
Sattvik India has designed the standards that standardize claims and defines vegetarianism in the most robust and credible way that it sets out the highest standards to ensure vegetarian consumers have confidence and is awarded transparency and authenticity that is currently demanded by the market.
Sattvik vs Halal
In the past few years, the term halal has become a massive buzzword and it has evolved to take on a new meaning altogether. It is baffling to see what used to be a concept about food and Islamic financing is now seen as a way of life across the world. This has sent ripple effects across all the industries and supply chains across the world, this ‘Halal’ trend is now stimulating billions of dollars in halal market expansion every year.
It has been observed that Muslims are demanding only sharia-compliant or Halal products or services, which led to this massive expansion of the Halal economy. Earlier it was only with ‘food’ but now Halal compliance is mandatory even for government-run companies like Air Indian and Indian Railways. This Halal certification has been extended to packaged foods, Pharmacies, housing projects, fashion products, hospitals, beauty products. It has been extended up to a great extent and any organization wishing to export their products to Islamic countries has to be Halal Certified.
As per Quran, Halal is a pre-Islamic Arabic term that means ‘that which is permissible’. It is the opposite of another frequently used word, Haram, ‘that which is forbidden’. In simple words, we can say that Halal is anything that is permissible under the tenets of Islam.
Gradually, the Muslims are insisting more on consuming only Halal products as not following the Islamic guidelines is considered a ‘Sin’. That’s the major reason why every country has seen a rise in the production and supply of Halal products.
If we talk about India, which is not an Islamic country, but all the meat exported from India should be Halal certified, else it will be termed as Haram in Islamic countries. Muslims do sue MNC’s and won millions in damages for being served non-Halal foods, thereby ‘polluting’ them. This is why the Halal certification issue has gained ground, which ultimately increasing the Halal products and Halal economy at the same time.
The Halal economy, which started from Halal meat has now spread across all spectrums of the Industries. Muslims have understood that they need to tweak the rules and regulations to suit different sets of needs. It has been observed that something considered haram a few years ago has become halal now, just because that is suiting their agenda and long term vision of spreading the tentacles of Halal Economy.
In order to give a competition to Halal certification, Sattvik Council of India has launched ‘world’s first vegetarian’ food safety and regulatory compliance for vegetarian and vegan food. It has tied up with ITC Royal Vega Restaurants in ITC Grand Chola, Chennai, ITC Narmada, Ahmedabad and ITC Royal Bengal, Kolkata, and even with IRCTS to offer certified vegetarian and vegan food.
Sattvik’s certification process follows industry-leading best practices and emphasizes transparency in food safety regulations. It was developed based on scientific principles and ancient Vedic practices to protect consumers from the risks of foodborne illnesses and guarantees that products do not contain any animal-derived inputs.
It emphasizes that all the cuisines have been cooked in compliance with Sattvik management standards ensuring 100% vegetarian processing and utilization of the food products. Through a fusion of Indian Vedic norms and modern industry norms, it aims to set new standards and create lasting value for vegetarian and vegan consumers.
It is trying its best to give a touch fight to the Halal certification, and with its operations reaching to the foreign soil, it is going to give a big jolt to the Halal economy in the near future.
