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Dr Mohamed Abdel-Al Was New Zealand's Halal Food Processing Pioneer

Wednesday 5 November 2014, 1:27PM

By Manufacturers Success Connection

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The Mechanical Engineer's Death went Unnoticed

The death after a short illness of engineer Dr Haj Mohamed Abdel-Al brought to an end the life of the food processing specialist who single-handed opened up the Islamic market for New Zealand exports.


His death went unnoticed and reported. A mechanical engineer by training the Egyptian-born Dr Abdel-Al designed and implemented the system in which livestock were processed at meat works to conform to Halal edicts.


His NZ Islamic Meat Management company managed the teams of Halal compliant slaughtermen operating at freezing works around the nation.


He then went on to set up the New Zealand Islamic Processed Foods Management organisation which organised and certified as Halal compliant the processing of all varieties of processed foods such as peas.


Fluent and idiomatic in his English he was an ardent promoter of New Zealand taking every advantage of the Halal marketplace everywhere and in all processed foods.


In recent years he had sought to export New Zealand's Halal food processing expertise to other Islamic nations, notably Malaysia, and also to the United Kingdom where he saw opportunities in Islamic communities there.


For many years he was the head of the New Zealand federation of Islamic associations.  He ran his organisation from a base in Upper Willis Street, Wellington, and at the time of his death was in the process of a phased retirement to the Wairarapa countryside.


Peter Isaac  MSCNewsWire                                    © 2014 MSCNewsWire