Malaysian authorities have seized 80 kilograms of monosodium glutamate believed to have come from Indonesia. The product has recently been at the centre of a massive recall after it contravened Muslim dietary laws.
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The seizure was made at a workshop in the northern state of Perlis where the MSG was being repackaged with labels for Ajinomoto, the New Straits Times newspaper reported earlier Today (30 January). Labels bore Chinese and English characters and did not use any marking claiming the product was halal, or permitted under Muslim dietary law, according to Malaysia’s Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry. All Ajinomoto products manufactured in Malaysia are required to carry the halal label.
Ajinomoto was forced to pull hundreds of tons of its product off Indonesian shelves after Islamic clerics declared that the seasoning contained enzymes grown on pork fat. The matter is still surrounded in confusion as the Indonesian government ruled that the product contains no ingredients outlawed by Islam.
