Istihalah: Analysis on The Utilization of Gelatin in Food Products

This paper discusses the issue of gelatin used in food products from Islamic and science perspective. With the development of food technology, variety of food has been produced and some of them are from gelatin based products. Issue arises when the halal status of gelatin is questionable. In food industry, gelatin could derive either from pig skin and cattle hides which are not clear about the status of halalness. This cause concern among muslim and therefore a careful study needs to be done. This paper uses Istihalah method in order to determine the halal and haram status in modern food products. Istihalah or complete process of transformation from one substance into another substance has been applied in gelatin based food products. It is suggested that chemical composition of gelatin remain unchanged in food products because the amino acid in gelatin is still intact and did not undergo any chemical transformation although the production process involve extreme condition.