Millions of Britons are eating halal food without realising, warns the Daily Mail, before explaining that many supermarkets and restaurants switched to slaughtering animals in line with Islamic ritual because the meat can be eaten by Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
The Mail's Guy Adams explains that halal abattoirs account for roughly a quarter of the UK's 352 slaughterhouses but - while most stun their animals with an electric shock - he visits one which uses "old-fashioned, scripturally correct" methods which ensure the animal is still conscious as its throat is slit. And while it might save the chains money because they don't have to offer alternatives from different sources, he hears from consumers who object to the "Islamification of food".
For the Sun, it's "fowl play" that vendors don't tell customers when they're being served halal meat. Its poll suggested 73% of Britons believe restaurants should be made to say when that is the case.
Brendan O'Neill, writing in the Telegraph, doesn't mind. "All meat is a slaughtered beast, so it seems pointless to worry about how the creature in question was done in," he says. What he finds hard to swallow, however, is that "the food-related sensitivities of 4.8% of the British population should apparently trump the right of the other 95%".
The Daily Star accepts the "jury is out" as to whether halal meat production is any less humane than factory farming methods but says: "It is appalling we're still not being told what is in our food. Lessons should have been learned after the horsemeat scandal."
However, the Guardian's Hugh Muir writes: "Better in this changing Britain to make your products acceptable to those who might buy them, especially if others without specific requirement raise no significant objection. If they do, the [company's] policy will change. In the meantime, better to keep costs down by using one method of production rather than several."
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