The two companies tout their products as slaughter-free, raising a theological question: If meat doesn’t come from a slaughtered animal, does it still need religious oversight to be considered kosher or halal? The dietary restrictions followed by some Muslims and Jews both hinge on ritual slaughter.
In order for cultivated meat to be considered halal, the animal that the cell lines originally came from would have to be halal and handled in a way that wouldn’t make it haram, or forbidden according to Islamic law, said Mohammad Hussaini, vice president of global Halal affairs for the American Halal Foundation, a major halal certifier. That rules out pig products altogether.