Why Do Non-Muslims Buy Halal Food? What the Evidence Shows

Non-Muslims buy Halal food mainly because it is there: on the shelf, at the counter or in the meat case, often with no label at all. Where they choose it on purpose, peer-reviewed studies point to perceived quality and cleanliness, familiarity with Muslim neighbors and cuisines, and overlap with ethical or clean-label claims. Animal welfare cuts both ways.

This article was first published in December 2021. It has been updated with peer-reviewed consumer research from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Canada, Spain and the U.K., 2022 U.K. slaughter data, State of the Global Islamic Economy 2025/26 market figures, evidence on anti-Halal campaigns in Australia and France, and guidance for brands on labeling.

Reviewed by Hafiz Maqsood Ahmed.

The question matters because the Halal food market is bigger than its religious base. Muslim consumers spent an estimated $1.53 trillion on food and beverages in 2024, a figure projected to reach $2.06 trillion by 2029, according to the State of the Global Islamic Economy Report 2025/26 by DinarStandard. Muslims numbered about two billion people in 2020, or 26 percent of the world’s population, according to Pew Research Center. Neither figure counts the non-Muslims who buy the same products.

That second group decides whether a brand that seeks Halal certification sells to a niche or to the mainstream. For food manufacturers, meat packers and retailers in the United States, Europe and Australia, the answer shapes three business choices: whether to certify, whether to print the logo on the pack and how to respond if a customer campaign turns against it.

How many non-Muslims buy Halal?

No official statistic measures non-Muslim Halal spending in any country. The best evidence is indirect: slaughter data, company estimates and academic surveys, each with clear limits.

The strongest indirect measure comes from Britain. In a survey week in March 2022, 72.3 percent of the sheep slaughtered in England and Wales were killed by the Halal method, according to the Food Standards Agency’s 2022 slaughter sector survey. Muslims made up 6.5 percent of the population of England and Wales in the 2021 census, according to the Office for National Statistics. Some of that lamb is exported, but the gap means many non-Muslim households in Britain almost certainly eat Halal-slaughtered lamb, often without knowing it.

Brand estimates point the same way. Adnan Durrani, the founder of the U.S. frozen-food brand Saffron Road, estimated in a 2020 interview with Food Dive that “probably 85% of our consumers are not even halal consumers or American Muslims.” Food Dive reported that the brand was sold in about 25,000 grocery stores, including 4,300 Walmart stores. His figure is a company estimate, not audited data, and no independent study has tested it.

What the research says about non-Muslim halal buyers

Academic studies consistently find that non-Muslims who know about halal food are open to it, and that attitudes and social circles predict purchase intention better than religious knowledge does. Most studies, however, come from Malaysia and Singapore, where non-Muslims live alongside a Muslim majority or large minority.

Two cautions apply. Most samples are small or drawn from convenience groups such as students, and almost all measure stated intention rather than actual purchases. Peer-reviewed research on non-Muslim halal buyers in the United States is thin; we found no large published study comparable to the Malaysian work.

The five reasons non-Muslims buy halal

The evidence supports availability and perceived quality most strongly, and price least. Here is what each driver rests on.

1. Availability: halal is often the default

Many non-Muslims buy halal because a supplier, restaurant or retailer chose it for everyone. The U.K. lamb figures are one example. Another came from France in 2010, when the burger chain Quick converted 14 more of its roughly 350 French restaurants to halal-only menus, bringing the total serving halal meat to 22, The National reported. Valerie Raynal, Quick’s head of communications, called the branches a success. Every customer at those restaurants, Muslim or not, ate halal meat.

In the United States, the same pattern shows up when national chains stock halal lines. Our reporting on how American retailers stock halal found Walmart and Costco carrying halal lamb, chicken and ready meals that sit next to conventional products and are bought by anyone who reaches for them.

2. Perceived quality, cleanliness and oversight

Non-Muslim shoppers often read a halal logo as a sign of extra inspection. In the Golnaz study, Malaysian non-Muslims associated halal with food safety, although that factor was only weakly significant in the authors’ model.

That perception is not the same as proof. No peer-reviewed study we reviewed shows that halal-certified food is safer than comparable conventional food. Halal certification audits compliance with Islamic dietary rules, such as the absence of pork and alcohol and the method of slaughter. In the United States, government food-safety inspection applies regardless: the Federal Meat Inspection Act requires that all meat sold commercially be inspected and passed, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. Readers weighing the hygiene question can see our separate look at whether halal food is cleaner.

What certification does add is a documented chain of custody. A certifier reviews ingredients, suppliers and production lines, and that paper trail is what a cautious shopper is buying into. How strict that trail is depends on the certifier, because halal certifications are not equal in audit depth or international recognition.

3. Overlap with ethical and clean-label claims

Halal products often carry other claims that mainstream shoppers want, such as antibiotic-free meat, organic or non-GMO. Durrani told Food Dive that when Saffron Road entered Whole Foods about a decade before the 2020 interview, the chain had no other frozen entrees made with antibiotic-free meat. In that case, the shopper may be buying the antibiotic-free claim and getting halal with it.

This overlap makes it hard to separate motives. A study that asks non-Muslims why they bought a halal product rarely controls for the other labels on the same pack.

4. Taste, cuisine and familiarity

Much non-Muslim halal spending is really spending on cuisines: Middle Eastern, South Asian, Turkish, Malaysian and North African food. Halal carts in New York, kebab shops in London and Berlin, and nasi lemak stalls in Singapore sell to everyone. The research supports a familiarity effect: in the Wilkins study, cosmopolitan consumers who enjoy foreign products judged halal food more favorably, and in the Malaysian and Singaporean studies, the views of friends and family shaped intention.

5. Price

Price is the weakest driver. Australia’s Senate Economics References Committee found in its December 2015 report on third-party certification of food that the evidence overwhelmingly suggested halal certification does not raise retail food prices, because the cost for large manufacturers is small. That finding cuts against both a premium and a discount: for most packaged goods, halal status is close to price-neutral. Halal fresh meat in U.S. specialty stores may sell at different prices, but we found no independent price survey.

Animal welfare: a reason to buy halal and a reason to avoid it

Animal welfare is the most contested driver. Some non-Muslims buy halal believing the slaughter rules are more humane; others avoid it because some halal meat comes from animals that were not stunned before slaughter.

The research reflects both views. In the Golnaz study, concern for animal welfare made Malaysian non-Muslims less likely to see benefits in halal food. In Australia, an academic analysis of submissions to the 2015 Senate inquiry found that 35.2 percent raised animal welfare concerns, according to a 2019 factsheet by Georgetown University’s Bridge Initiative.

The facts on stunning are more nuanced than either side often says. The 2022 Food Standards Agency survey found that about 97 percent of halal-slaughtered cattle in England and Wales were stunned, but about 31 percent of halal-slaughtered sheep were not. For meat chickens, about 85 percent of halal birds were stunned, according to calculations by The Halal Times from the survey’s figures.

Scholars and certifiers disagree on whether stunning is compatible with halal slaughter. Many certifiers accept reversible stunning that does not kill the animal before the cut, while others reject any stunning; our guide to what makes meat halal explains where they differ. On the welfare side, the European Food Safety Authority’s 2004 scientific opinion on stunning and killing methods raised welfare concerns about slaughter without stunning.

Regulation follows these concerns. The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on Dec. 17, 2020, in Case C-336/19, that member states may require reversible stunning before religious slaughter, upholding a ban in Belgium’s Flemish region.  The Australian Senate committee recommended in 2015 that meat from religious slaughter be labeled, a measure that the Australian Parliamentary Library said in 2016 had not been put in place.

The counter-current: backlash and boycotts

Some non-Muslims do not just ignore halal products; they organize against them. The best-documented campaigns ran in Australia and France, and they show that a halal logo can cost a brand customers as well as win them.

In Australia, the dairy company Fleurieu Milk & Yoghurt canceled its halal certification in November 2014 after a social media campaign, putting at risk an export deal with Emirates worth $50,000 a year , and reinstated certification in May 2015, according to the Georgetown Bridge Initiative factsheet. The same document reports that the Byron Bay Cookie Company asked police to step in after aggressive calls and emails, and that Kellogg’s and Sanitarium did not renew halal certification, as reported in July 2017. The Senate committee’s 2015 report found no direct link between halal certification in Australia and terrorism funding, a claim that campaigners had made.

In France, Marine Le Pen, then of the National Front, called Quick’s halal-only restaurants a “scandal” in 2010, The National reported. René Vandierendonck, the Socialist mayor of Roubaix, filed a lawsuit against the trial and withdrew it within a week.

The academic evidence matches the anecdotes. Stephen Wilkins of the University of Bath found in his 2019 study that consumer ethnocentrism and strong national identification were negatively related to how consumers judged halal products. Wilkins concluded that in markets with many such consumers, firms should not expect non-target consumers to accept halal products.

What it means for food brands

For most brands, the evidence suggests that halal certification widens the market without much cost, but that the on-pack logo is a separate decision. The right labeling choice depends on the product category, the market and how visible the brand is to campaigners.

Three practical points follow. First, pick a certifier whose mark is recognized in the markets you sell to, since recognition varies by country. Second, explain what the mark means on your website, including your position on stunning, because welfare questions are the most common source of non-Muslim pushback. Third, measure before you assume: a brand that believes most of its buyers are non-Muslim should test it, as the commercial case for how certification benefits businesses rests on knowing who is buying.

Frequently asked questions

Can non-Muslims eat halal food?

Yes. Halal rules describe what Muslims may consume; nothing in halal certification restricts who may buy or eat the product. Non-Muslims around the world eat halal food every day in restaurants, school cafeterias and homes, often without knowing it.

Is halal meat healthier?

There is no peer-reviewed evidence we found that halal meat is healthier than comparable conventional meat. Some halal brands also carry claims such as antibiotic-free or organic, which describe how the animal was raised, not the halal status itself.

Does halal certification make food more expensive?

Not measurably for most packaged foods, according to the Australian Senate committee’s 2015 report, which found that the evidence overwhelmingly suggested certification does not increase prices. Specialty halal meat may be priced differently, but independent price data are scarce.

Why do some people oppose halal food?

Opponents in Australia and Europe have cited animal welfare, objections to paying certification fees and claims about where those fees go. Australia’s 2015 Senate inquiry found no direct link between halal certification and terrorism funding. Research by Wilkins links opposition partly to consumer ethnocentrism and strong national identification.

Related reading: Does Halal Mean Healthier?