In the cupboard

Indonesia's halal law from 17 October 2026: what changes on the shelf

Updated 23 September 2026

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, and in less than four weeks its halal law reaches the whole shop. Small traders and importers, who were given until 17 October 2026, now have to show a certificate or a clear non-halal label. For a household the question is simple: what does the mark on the pack mean after that date, who stands behind it, and which foods never needed one in the first place?

What happens on 17 October 2026?

Indonesia's Halal Product Assurance Law, Law 33 of 2014, made halal certification compulsory for products that are sold in the country, with the rules set out in Government Regulation 42 of 2024. It was never switched on all at once. According to a summary by the Jakarta law firm SSEK, the stages look like this:

• Medium and large businesses making food, drink, slaughtered products and slaughter services had from 17 October 2019 to 17 October 2024.
• Micro and small businesses in the same categories had until 17 October 2026.
• Imported products were given a date to be set by the Minister of Religious Affairs, no later than 17 October 2026.

So 17 October 2026 is the day the last group falls in. Indonesia's state news agency Antara reported on 18 September that this second phase applies from 18 October to food and drink, meat products and slaughter services, cosmetics, chemicals, genetically modified products, traditional medicines, health supplements and consumer goods.

There is no sign of a delay. The US Department of Agriculture's office in Jakarta, which follows these rules closely because of the trade at stake, wrote in a report dated 14 September 2026 that BPJPH had told it verbally that it does not plan to issue a written extension or relaxation of the deadline. The same report says that until the deadline, BPJPH is not enforcing certification for products other than meat and dairy, which have needed it for decades.

Who issues a halal certificate in Indonesia now?

If you grew up in Indonesia, the halal mark you remember probably came from MUI, the Majelis Ulama Indonesia, or Indonesian Ulema Council. That has changed, and the change is easy to miss because MUI still has a central role.

Today three bodies share the work. An accredited halal inspection body, known as an LPH, audits the product and its production. MUI's Fatwa Commission then rules on whether the product is halal. Only after that ruling does BPJPH, the Halal Product Assurance Organizing Agency, issue the certificate. Antara has described this sequence in reports from October 2025 and December 2025, and SSEK sets out the same order. So the religious judgement remains with the scholars of MUI, and the certificate itself is a state document.

The label is changing too. SSEK notes that BPJPH decrees from 2022 and 2023 replace the old MUI halal logo with a national halal label designed by BPJPH. Businesses may use up existing packaging with the old logo until 17 October 2026. After that date, only the national label is accepted. Missing labels on certified products can bring a written warning, a fine of up to 2 billion rupiah, revocation of the certificate or withdrawal of the product.

A few more details help when you read a pack:

• A BPJPH certificate stays valid as long as the ingredients, recipe and production process do not change, according to SSEK.
• Micro and small businesses can use a self-declaration route through the government's SIHALAL system. Antara reported that 1.35 million free certificates were allocated for them in 2026, and that 10.9 million products had been certified by December 2025.
• Certified businesses are also expected to publish their halal status online and on social media, under a BPJPH circular issued on 28 August 2025.

Our page on halal certification symbols explains how national marks like this one compare with the private certifiers you see in the UK and US.

Which products need a halal certificate, and which do not?

Not everything needs a certificate. Indonesia keeps a Halal Positive List of products and ingredients treated as inherently halal. The list has changed several times this year, and the USDA report traces the changes:

• The original list came from a Ministry of Religious Affairs decree in 2021.
• BPJPH Decree 307/2025, published on 6 May 2026, named more than 950 tariff codes for food and drink and 65 for food additives that must be certified. It pulled some items off the exempt list, including frozen, salted and dried seafood and plain dried fruit.
• BPJPH Decree 301/2026, dated 31 August 2026, updated the list again. It exempts plant-derived items such as soybeans, corn, apples and almonds, products from animals that are not slaughtered such as fresh milk and eggs, algae, natural water, certain food processing chemicals and cotton. The USDA office understands that frozen, dried and salted seafood and plain dried fruit are exempt again.

Minimal processing does not change an exempt item's status. The decree lists methods such as washing, peeling, freezing, cutting, drying, salting, grinding, heating and pressing. A bag of frozen peas or a jar of ground almonds can stay exempt. A cooked sauce with ten ingredients cannot.

Some of the edge cases will be familiar to anyone who reads labels:

• Waxed fruit. Fresh fruit is exempt, including fruit with a plant wax such as carnauba. Fruit coated in beeswax or other insect-derived wax needs a certificate.
• Genetically engineered crops. GE seeds and plants with a food safety approval from Indonesia's food and drug agency, BPOM, are exempt. Anything processed from them, such as corn starch, soy oil, soy milk and soy protein isolate, needs a certificate like any other processed food.
• Ingredients. The USDA office understands that an ingredient must be certified even if it will only be used inside another product made in Indonesia.
• Animal feed. Feed does not need a certificate, but the new slaughter rules say an animal to be slaughtered must not have eaten feed containing pork.

The same logic, that a certificate covers the recipe and not the headline ingredient, sits behind our guide to reading a grocery label.

What happens to imported food?

Imports are where most of the news this month has been. Indonesia's Trade Minister, Budi Santoso, told Antara: "Halal certification is not an import restriction." He said imported goods may still enter, but once they are distributed in the market they must be certified.

In practice, an imported product has two routes. It can be certified directly by BPJPH, or it can be certified by a foreign halal body that Indonesia recognises, and then have that certificate registered in Indonesia. Antara reported that Indonesia had signed mutual recognition agreements with 116 of the 199 foreign halal institutions that applied, as of September 2026. The USDA office says most US companies use one of five American certifiers accredited by BPJPH. One of them is IFANCA, which lists a BPJPH accreditation certificate running from 2024 to 2028. That is the same body whose mark is on the Tillamook cheese we looked at in is Tillamook cheese halal?

Three newer rules sit on top of that:

• Labels can be added after arrival. Imports must carry the Indonesian halal logo and a halal registration number specific to the imported product. The long-standing practice of sticking these labels on after arrival, known as stickering, is still allowed, according to the USDA office.
• Pre-shipment inspection. BPJPH Regulation 4/2026, signed on 7 August and in force from 10 September 2026, creates checks in the country of origin to confirm that halal or non-halal products match their papers. Antara reported the regulation on 5 September. The USDA office says the inspection bodies have not been appointed yet, and that it understands these inspections are not currently required.
• Sanctions. BPJPH Regulation 2/2026, in force since 5 June 2026, lets the agency revoke the registration of a foreign certificate, or the accreditation of a foreign certifier, and announce it publicly.

A proposed rule would also require every certified establishment to employ a halal supervisor who is Muslim and trained for the role. It was put out for comment on 28 August 2026 and is not yet in force.

How will non-halal food be labelled?

A system that certifies halal food also needs to say clearly what is not halal, and Indonesia has done this for a long time. Antara notes that the Health Ministry has required labels on products containing pig-derived materials since 1976. BPJPH Regulation 3/2026, issued on 13 July 2026, sets the current rules. According to the USDA report:

• Pork products such as bacon, pork dumplings, canned pork, beans cooked with lard and pork floss carry a label that translates as "contains pork".
• Other products made from prohibited ingredients, such as crocodile, frog or blood, and drinks or foods with more than 0.5 percent alcohol, carry a separate non-halal graphic.
• Shared production lines can also trigger the non-halal label, where a product that is not itself haram is made alongside pork or other haram products and the lines cannot be kept apart.
• Grace period. Non-halal products already on the market have one year to comply, until 23 July 2027.

One detail matters for shoppers. The non-halal label is not an escape route for ordinary processed food. The USDA office says products that are not on the Positive List, such as peanut butter and sweeteners, cannot simply be sold with a non-halal label. After 17 October 2026 they can only be sold if they are certified halal and labelled as such.

The 0.5 percent figure is Indonesia's labelling line. Scholars and certifiers approach alcohol in food in different ways, depending on its source and whether any remains in the final product. We set out those positions in alcohol in food flavouring, and a legal threshold in one country does not settle the question for your household.

What changes at the slaughterhouse?

BPJPH Decree 160/2026, signed on 19 May 2026, replaced Indonesia's earlier slaughter guidelines. The USDA report lists the main points:

• In machine slaughter, the operator must be a Muslim adult, certified, and must say the basmalah when the machine starts and again if it restarts. The blade must cut all four channels: the windpipe, the gullet and the two blood vessels of the neck.
• Only three stunning methods are allowed for cattle, sheep and goats: non-penetrative mechanical stunning, head-only electrical stunning and electromagnetic stunning. Poultry may be stunned only with a head-only electrical water bath.
• Cattle, sheep and goats that are not stunned must be slaughtered within 10 seconds of being laid down. Stunned animals must be slaughtered within 30 seconds of stunning, and stunned poultry within 10 seconds.
• Slaughterhouses must keep separate halal and non-halal zones, from holding pens to cold rooms.

Certifiers do not all accept the same methods. Indonesia's rule permits machine slaughter and these forms of stunning, with conditions. Some certifiers elsewhere take a stricter line: the UK's HMC, for example, generally favours hand slaughter. Our page on halal butcher and supermarket meat explains why two packs of halal chicken can rest on different standards. Neither choice is ours to make for you, but it helps to know which standard a given mark follows.

Key dates at a glance

• 17 October 2024: deadline for medium and large food businesses.
• 6 May 2026: BPJPH Decree 307/2025 published, listing products that must be certified.
• 5 June 2026: sanctions regulation for foreign certificates in force.
• 13 July 2026: non-halal labelling regulation issued.
• 31 August 2026: updated Halal Positive List (Decree 301/2026).
• 10 September 2026: pre-shipment inspection regulation in force, with inspection bodies still to be appointed.
• 17 October 2026: deadline for small businesses and imports; end of the old MUI logo on packaging.
• 23 July 2027: end of the grace period for non-halal labels on products already on sale.

What this means if you shop in Indonesia or buy Indonesian food abroad

If you live in Indonesia, the change should make the shelf simpler. After 17 October 2026, packaged processed food should carry either the national halal label or a non-halal label. A pack with neither is either on the Positive List, sold in bulk without retail packaging, or something to ask the shop about. The USDA office understands that bulk food still needs a certificate but not a label.

If you buy Indonesian products abroad, in an Asian grocery in Birmingham or Chicago, the Indonesian label tells you that product was certified for the Indonesian market. It does not tell you that it meets the standard of the certifier you normally follow at home, particularly on meat. That is the same point we make in what a halal listing cannot promise: a mark is a named body's promise about a named product, and it is worth knowing whose promise it is.

And if you see a US or UK halal mark on an imported product in Jakarta, the question is whether that certifier is on Indonesia's recognised list and whether the certificate has been registered. BPJPH runs a public product and certificate search on its website. For a single ingredient you do not recognise, our halal ingredient checker is a quicker first step.

The details on imports are still moving. The USDA office itself says many points remain uncertain, and several proposed rules are still out for comment. We will update this page as BPJPH publishes written guidance.

General information, not a fatwa. Where scholars differ, we try to say so. For your situation, ask a scholar you trust.