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Kahimunan 2014 Food And Lifestyle Fair At SM City CDO

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Kahimunan 2014 Food & Lifestyle Fair at SM City CDOAn annual regional trade fair organize by the Department of Trade and Industry Region 10 (DTI), the “Kahimunan (Creations of Northern Mindanao) Regional Trade Fair” features the SME products of Bukidnon, Camiguin, Lanao del Norte, Misamis Occidental and Misamis Oriental from processed food,  gifts and housewares, fashion accessories, beverages, home style and living, and health and organic products.

Kahimunan is a native term meaning “gathering”. The Kahimunan is a marketing event to enable MSME’s to promote and access new markets for their products. The participants are the recipients of trade trainings and product development seminars prior to the exhibit.

“Kahimunan Regional Trade Fair is an annual market promotion event of Northern Mindanao to support MSME s in the region.  It is a cost-effective marketing strategy to generate sales and meet new buyers as well as existing customers face-to-face. It also provides opportunities to test the market to get immediate market feedback on new product designs or new products developed through product development and trainings conducted,” said Liza V. M. Alcantar, chief, Business Development Division, DTI-X.

“From joining regional trade fairs, many of the small enterprises have gathered sufficient exposure and experience giving them confidence to bring their products to national and international trade events,” she added.

Kahimunan Regional Trade fair has been staged as a trade event since the late 1990s but only started as an annual event to coincide with the Cagayan de Oro fiesta in 2007.For 2012, Kahimunan featured the Bamboo Cluster Showcase and “Speed Matching at a local restaurant with101 SME participants. The activity established a market link between local suppliers and tourism establishments (hotels, restaurants, convenience, and pasalubong stores) wherein the raw material requirements of the tourism establishments’ kitchens such as vegetables, spices, fruits, processed meat and seafood were matched with local SME suppliers.

The exhibit generated PhP 838, 025 sales over the week, a 15% increase over the previous year. The Speed Matching activity and booked sales generated an additional PhP 127, 000 sales.

For the following year, Kahimunan shifted its focus to DTI’s Shared Service Facilities (SSF) focusing on Bamboo, Abaca, processed food, and coffee and coco coir products. SSF is a livelihood assistance program aimed at allowing Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) access to better technology and more sophisticated equipment to improve the salability, production and global competitiveness of their products.

 

“The SSF project is aimed at assisting some 81, 221 SMEs with a good growth potential,” said Ma. Eliza A. Pabillore, DTI Misamis Oriental Provincial Director, organizer of this year’s event. “It also aims to generate 200,000 new jobs all over the country.”

Although the number of exhibitors declined to 51 from 82 in the previous year and the exhibit duration reduced to five days, Kahimunan 2013 nevertheless registered a 74% increase in total sales. Cash sales declined 28% but this was more than compensated for by the astounding 641% increase in booked sales.

For this year, 51 small and medium enterprises from the five provinces of Northern Mindanao are showcasing the region’s best products at the Kahimunan Northern Mindanao 2014 Food and Lifestyle Show which concludes this weekend at SM City, Cagayan de Oro City. Kahimunan 2014 is a core event of the Higalaay Kagay-an Festival 2014, the annual city fiesta festival of Cagayan de Oro City.

Featured products include gifts and housewares, fashion accessories, processed food, beverages, home style and living, health and organic products, and furniture.

For the first time in its four year run, the show will recognize the Best Product Design for Housewares & Furnishings and Fashion Categories and the Most Innovative Food Product.

Best Product Design recognizes the exhibitors and manufacturers who develop innovative and distinctive designs that combine the ideals of form and function. The criteria for selection include design, aesthetic and function appeal, market potential (40%), quality and workmanship (25%), innovation (25%) and materials/sustainability and value-added (10%).

The criteria for selecting the Most Innovative Food Product include Product Innovation (50%) and packaging (50%).

An maximum of 7 points will be awarded to exhibitors who would be able to comply with the following requirements: FDA License to operate, Organic Certification, Halal Certification, HACCP Certification, Export Potential, For Health and Wellness, and 100% use of local ingredients.

The Awards will include a 50% subsidy of the participation fee/booth rental for Kahimunan 2015, promotion through press releases, inclusion in the special setting for Kahimunan 2015.

Originally published on www.kagay-an.com

US: Halal Festival Draws Foodies For Diverse Cuisine

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halal-festival-in-new-parkWell before noon on Saturday, Aug. 9, the smell of meat cooking over an open fire teased the long line of people cued at the entrance to the second annual Halal Festival at NewPark Mall. Most couldn’t wait to embark on a halal food eating spree.

Many said they had shown up early this year, hoping to avoid long lines and waits many experienced during last year’s inaugural event, and to sample as many types of food before festival-goers started pouring in.

Halal Festival 2.0, touted as a bigger and better halal festival than last year, offered more food vendors, more entertainment for the whole family and more folks selling items in the bazaar. An estimated 8,500 people attended.

Twenty seven food vendors offered everything from Chinese appetizers like potstickers and eggrolls, to Afghan chicken kabobs and chaplis (ground beef kabob), Pakistani tandoori kabobs on skewers, fusion Mexican food, ice cream, smoothies and more traditional American dishes like fried chicken, hot dogs, burgers and steaks. These last four were the most popular dishes being served up at the festival, with the longest lines.

Irfan Rydhan, a self-proclaimed foodie and festival organizer, said this was to be expected as these are the types of foods that most Muslims who only eat halal, would not be able to eat on a regular basis, which makes it more popular.

“Halal” is Arabic for “permissible,” and refers to religious dietary guidelines similar to kosher food for Jews, with pork and alcohol prohibited.

A few things were different this year compared to last year. That included festival-goers paying an admission fee of $3 before the event or $5 at the door who then bought food and drinks directly from the vendors. Last year, attendees purchased food tokens and exchanged them for food.

This year, food vendors were told to expect 7,000 to 8,000 people, which meant most halal festival attendees were able to try a number of the different foods they wanted, unlike last year where halal festival vendors were only expecting about 3,000 attendees and 10,000 showed up, causing many to quickly run out of food.

Additionally, there were more activities, rides, live performances and programs for entire families, including a cooking demonstration and three eating contests. The eating contests (with separate events for men and women) challenged participants to eat as many spicy chicken wings, a large snow cone and Gulab Jaman (a syrupy Pakistani dessert) in the allotted time.

And halal festival organizers this year tripled the amount of seating under canopies, to around 500 spots. Still, people were circling around the tents looking for an empty chair or table space to set down their food to eat.

Attendance of the festival decreased from last year, which Rydhan said he expected, since they were charging admission. He added that he and other organizers received a lot of feedback about how much attendees enjoyed the food, how the festival was better organized this year and also how they could improve, which included having better signage and providing more seating for people to enjoy the entertainment and the food.

Rydhan said organizers plan on sending out a survey to solicit additional feedback about what they could do to improve the festival experience next time around.

“This was more of what we wanted to do, which was promote the different kinds of halal food and the diversity in the community,” he said. “Some people complimented us and said this was like an actual Eid Festival (held at the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan) … where all the Muslims come together, Sunni, Shia and other groups, people who are religious and people who are not so much, celebrating and enjoying the festival.”

Originally published on www.mercurynews.com/

Halal/Haram Food According to Islam

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Now let us ask a few basic questions to establish the importance of the subject today:

1: Is there really anything in Islam that restricts our diet?
Answer: Yes. This is confirmed in both the Quran and in the sunnah (hadeeth or teachings of Muhammad, peace be upon him), many times.

2: What are the restrictions?
Answer: Everything is halal (permissible) except for those things that are specifically forbidden.

  1. Swine or pork products of any kind (Quran)
  2. Donkey meat (hadeeth narrated by Ali, in Sahih Al Bukhari)
  3. Animals of prey (eagles, falcons, lions, tigers, bears, etc.)
  4. Animals already dead
  5. Animals dead of disease, old age, etc.
  6. Dead from falling, breaking neck, etc.
  7. Violent deaths
  8. Animals killed by other animals
  9. Animals partially eaten by other animals
  10. Animals sacrificed to other gods than Allah

3: How are the animals to be slaughtered by Muslims?

  1. Animal place on side, relaxed (if possible)
  2. Very sharp knife (hidden from animal’s view)
  3. One quick slice of knife across throat
  4. Mention Allah’s Name (Bismillah)
  5. Single, firm cut just at the knot on the neck
  6. Do not break the neck
  7. Allow to bleed until unconscious
  8. Butcher only after animail is completely dead

4. Who is allowed to do the slaughtering and butchering? – Muslims, Jews and Christians (Ahl Kitab)

5. If a Jewish Rabbi slaughters it, is there anything else to be concerned about? – Usually – “No. This is all you need” – But if there is any real doubt, check with your local imam who has slaughtering experience.

6. What about Christians who might say, “In the Name of Jesus” during slaughtering? – Allah tells us in the Quran that we can eat their meat. It is very doubtful any Christian is saying “Jesus” or “Trinity”. Even if they did it, but you didn’t know about it, just say, Bismillah and eat it.

7. What about others who are not Christian or Jew? – If you know that someone is not Christian or Jew, and they are involved in the slaughter — don’t eat it.
If you know that they are offering the meat as a sacrifice to some other God than Allah – don’t eat it. 
If you doubt whether or not a Christian or Jew actually slaughtered the meat, then don’t eat it.

8. What about the meat in the grocery stores and fast food chains?

  1. Remember the rule – “If in doubt – don’t eat it” (any doubt about the religion of the one slaughtering? — Don’t eat)
  2. Be careful of ground beef from regular stores. Often they have been found to mix pork and other things into the ground beef.
  3. Some fast food restaurants have halal meat. More and more we learn of Muslim owned shops. Just ask for non-meat, vegetarian or halal sausage or bacon.

9. What about fish and seafood? – Everything that is from the sea is halal for us to eat. Seafood has no special way to be slaughtered or butchered.

10. What about wild game? – Whatever you shoot that dies as a result is halal. If your hunting animal eats from it — then it is haram to you.

11. What should a family do that lives in the West and halal is just not available in most places?

  1. Form a group to go buy from a place that sells it
  2. Have a place (masjid?) to keep a freezer full of halal meat
  3. Muslims pay enough to cover expences
  4. Gather in each other’s homes or community centers or masjids for potluck dinners
  5. Order halal (or kosher if Halal not available) at your local butcher shop or grocery store
  6. Eat vegetarian meat substitutes
  7. Eat fish etc.

Keep in mind that eating halal is a condition to have our prayers answered by Allah. So don’t take this subject to lightly. Food and drink are two things that we will be questioned about on the Day of Judgment.

Best to eat from food with no doubt, like from places that do zabihah (halal meat) and feel good about obeying Allah.

May Allah continue to guide you to search for answers in Islam and protect you and your family from eating from the “forbidden fruits,” ameen.

Originally Shared: islamnewsroom.com/

Make The Most Of Airline Halal Food

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Qantas late lunch on BNE-SIN

Airline food is the butt of endless bad comedy routines, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t maximise the experiencing of dining on a plane. With Qantas upgrading its in-flight meals this week, here’s what’s on offer and how you can get the best from it.

Qantas this week announced that it is going to change its approach to meals on domestic flights, offering a choice of either a boxed meal or a “substantial salad” for lunches and evening meals on longer-haul flights and all flights between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Australian Business Traveller reports that the serves offered will also be larger.

Qantas is one of the two domestic airlines which offers free food routinely on all flights; prior to this change it only offered a single choice. If you fly outside of mealtimes, you’ll usually get a snack and a drink. Virgin Australia offers free basic meals on east coast and WA flights. On Jetstar or Tiger, you’ll be paying for any drinks or snacks you want. (Flying in business class invariably gets you a free meal).

Most international flights from Australia will offer a meal service, though again discount airlines may charge you for the privilege. Some of them require you to order meals in advance, which at least ensures you’ll get the option you want.

Whoever you’re flying with, follow these general tips for a better food experience.

Plan for what will happen

Establish what meal options will be available (paid or otherwise) and whether you care. On a brief flight between Sydney and Melbourne, you might be more concerned with getting work done than chowing down a snack. Conversely, you might plan to eat on a flight so as to save time on the ground. On an international flight, eating a meal helps pass the time — but you might prefer not to be interrupted if you’re on an overnight trip and want to sleep. So plan your meals as part of your flight schedule. Don’t make them an afterthought.

Sit towards the front

Even in the context of scoring a free meal, it’s nice to have a choice if it’s available. Your chances of that happening will be greatly increased if you’re seated towards the front of the plane, since service generally starts at the front and works backwards. (On larger planes for international flights, there may be multiple crews, but sitting towards the front is still a sensible principle.)

You can maximise your chances of scoring a good seat by checking in online as soon as the option is available. Higher-status fliers will be able to pick seats ahead of time, while some bargain airlines will also let you choose seats in advance for a fee.

Choose a special meal on international flights

If you have specific dietary requirements (such as vegetarian, vegan, low-salt, kosher or halal) then make sure you lodge that request at the time of booking. One bonus of ordering special meals is that you’ll usually score your meal before the main service.

Pack your own

If you’re particularly finicky in your food choices, or don’t see the point in paying over the odds for a bag of crisps, you can take your own food or snacks on board. Some bargain airlines try and argue that this is banned, but in reality you’ll usually be able to get away with it.

For Australian domestic flights, there aren’t any restrictions on liquids you can take on board. For international flights, you can’t travel with liquids over 100ml. Quarantine restrictions will also mean you’ll generally have to dump any food you haven’t eaten on board. Also bear in mind that you can’t take a knife to chop stuff up with.

What foods to take? The obvious choices are fresh fruit (which you won’t often see on a flight anyway) and nuts (compact, filling, high in protein).

Originally Shared: lifehacker.com.au/

Deutsche Bank Clashes With NGO’s Over Food Speculation

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food-speculation- by-banksNGOs and investors are at odds over the effects of food speculation, causing the European Parliament to propose limiting direct stakeholder purchases, and Deutsche Bank to cover its tracks amid “a flood of accusations.” EurActiv Germany reports.
Deutsche Bank is being stubborn: It does not want to draw any conclusions regarding the correlation between its business policy, and the risk of food price speculation. But this is precisely the accusation coming from numerous NGOs, after a meeting with representatives on Wednesday (16 April) in Frankfurt.
“Neither could Deutsche Bank weaken the argument that their financial products contribute to price increases in food products, nor could it finally rule out connections to hunger,” criticised the NGO Foodwatch, which was invited to the meeting.
Similar to Oxfam and the German aid organisation Welthungerhilfe, Foodwatch believes that bets on changing prices for corn, soy or wheat are responsible for global hunger. Speculation drives prices for food products up, Foodwatch said, to the detriment of the poorest consumers.
But the details of the accusations cannot be analysed, as the conference of experts took place behind closed doors and the content of the debate is confidential.
No clear case of cause and effect
Nevertheless, it is clear that the accused see the situation differently.
“Reacting to a flood of accusations”, Deutsche Bank claimed its own activities in the food sector were put under particular scrutiny, and the factors for rising food prices were analysed and evaluated.
According to these, the conclusion was made that rising prices should be attributed to increased demand due to global population growth. And short-term price variations are also not necessarily the result of speculation. They are just as subject to weather-related production failures and politics as well as oil prices and changing exchange rates, Deutsche Bank said its findings indicate.
As a matter of fact, scholars themselves are divided over the extent to which speculation affects food prices, said Wolfgang Jamann who is secretary-general at Welthungerhilfe. But, he said, because the consequences for “starving smallholders” can be potentially fatal, it is not morally acceptable to bet on rising or falling food prices in the interest of short-term profits.
Director General Pirmin Spiegel from MISEREOR said the precautionary principle should be applied in food price speculation.
But this demand is rejected by Michael Schneider, investment manager at Deutsche Bank.
“It would be easy to say, we will keep our hands off – gaining applause from a few non-governmental organisations,” Schneider argued. Instead, he said he asks himself, “who represents the view of farmers in Africa in this emotionally charged discussion?”
From his own experience on the ground, the Deutsche Bank investor indicated: “When wheat at the commodity exchange in Chicago is expensive, then it is surely not a disadvantage for a farmer in Zambia.”
In Schneider’s view, the opposite is true: When prices are high it pays off for him to produce wheat beyond his own level of consumption because it would be quite expensive to import grain at high international market prices.
European Parliament stops ‘immoral roulette’
Markus Ferber, top candidate for the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), agrees that speculation with raw materials is not bad per se, “as long as they offer the necessary liquidity for concluding forward transactions and there is a real interest in the product”.
Still, the CSU politician is happy with the Parliament’s decision on Tuesday (15 April). Last week, MEPs also assumed a position in the ideologically charged conflict, endorsing the EU’s new Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID).
The directive will put an end to “betting on food”, said Ferber, providing for strict upper limits in stock exchange dealings with raw materials and foods. In this way, it hopes to prevent actors who cannot prove any direct use of the product from buying up unlimited quantities.
“A chocolate producer has a real interest in cocoa and should therefore be able to secure the price of the harvest on the stock market. A financial actor who only wants to speculate on the price of cocoa never plans on actually acquiring the good”, explained Ferber.
“The rules that have been passed are a big breakthrough in stopping immoral roulette being played on the food, agricultural and raw materials markets”, said Udo Bullmann, chairman of the SPD in the European Parliament.
The Greens are also happy with the measure: Already in January, Sven Giegold, finance expert and spokesman for the Greens in the European Parliament, called the impending agreement a “magnificent victory for civic involvement in Europe”. Hard boundaries have been set for speculation on foods and raw materials in the future, he said, lauding the Parliament’s effort.
But Thilo Bode, head of Foodwatch, is disappointed in the new EU measure. Large loopholes still exist, he explained on Deutschlandradio.
The fact that every EU country will be able to set its own upper limits for speculation could lead to a race to the bottom, producing weak regulations, said Bode.
“After all, the European Union is one market. And if every stock exchange can limit the number of speculative contracts itself, then of course there will be a race to the stock exchange offering the best conditions,” Bode said. In this way restrictions on excessive speculations could be undermined.
David Hachfeld, trade expert for Oxfam Deutschland, points his finger at London as a financial centre. “This risk is particularly clear in the United Kingdom. A regulatory race to the bottom threatens to take hold among European financial centres,” he said.
But particularly in light of complex interconnectedness, Foodwatch is calling for more transparency from Deutsche Bank. As long as they do not disclose their speculative activities, constructive dialogue is impossible, the NGO said.
Deutsche Bank should finally reveal the promised studies over the effects of speculation in the food sector, Foodwatch demanded, calling on the investment giant to “finally stop distorting the arguments of their critics”.
Originally published  on http://halalfocus.net/