INTERPRETATION OF HALAL COSMETICS IN MALAYSIA 141 that merely discusses food and other religious aspects, but also has a broader meaning in its scope and application (3). Halal is now becoming a lifestyle, and, in principle, it is not limited to Muslims and does not imply a religious perspective. It is becoming a phenomenal global issue because of the benefi ts and quality that it offers to consumers. The choice of using halal products is now possible because of the development of human knowledge and technology that leads to the improvement of human intellect, understanding, and lifestyle change. Recently, the halal industry offers great opportunities and profi ts to industry players from all over the world, including non-Muslim countries. Therefore, there is a need to provide a proper and standard guideline as a reference, particularly for Muslim and non-Muslim cosmetic manufacturers. Such a guideline can avoid confusion and could decrease the gray area regarding the open category of “not forbidden” that might need further explanations, and hence it can help in defi ning the open aspect to become clearer and more practical. Malaysia, as the leader in the halal industry, had introduced a guideline to control the application of halal certifi cation and logo for cosmetic products. Cosmetic and personal care is one of the seven Malaysia’s halal certifi cation schemes offered by JAKIM (10). However, detailed practical descriptions of “tayyib” and its rational association with “ha- lal” have not been well clarifi ed. Alzeer et al. (11) introduced a practical description and application of “halal–tayyib” relationship that considered halal as a subject and tayyib as a process. This should lead to consider “clean and pure food” as the main objective in achieving the main goal of the comfortable feeling. Regarding cosmetics, this description can be related to the element of safety in the sense that cosmetics and personal care products should be nontoxic and pose no risk under normal use (11). Besides the element of safety, the source of ingredients in cosmetic pro- duction is the main factor for halal certifi cation and recognition. In the overall design of cosmetic products, a careful selection of active ingredients and an evaluation of potential ingredients are critical steps (12). In addition, the complexity of the formulation and the variety of the ingredients of cosmetic products may contribute to diffi culties in the adul- teration verifi cation. And fi nally, the ingredients found in cosmetic products may also provoke health and environmental effects that have prompted this study to highlight the ingredients as one of the major factors requiring the attention of the halal guidelines (13–15). The objective of this study was to provide information about the halal cosmetic area in relation to health risk and halal status by identifying the critical points for the ingredi- ents of halal cosmetic. The fi rst step is to identify the differences between halal and gen- eral cosmetics and their classifi cations, followed by a discussion of issues related to the safety of cosmetic ingredients that may affect the halal status of the cosmetic product. The signifi cant role of this study is to provide information on the importance of produc- ing halal cosmetic products that have attracted the interest of consumers globally in the halal beauty industry. MATERIALS AND METHODS The data were collected from primary and secondary sources, namely, the regulation and standard from the authority’s bodies in Malaysia, academic journals, and reference books related to Islamic studies. The main documents that were analyzed include Malaysian

JOURNAL OF COSMETIC SCIENCE 142 Standard MS 2634:2019 (the new Malaysian Standard for cosmetic that replaced MS 2200) (16), Manual Procedure for Malaysia Halal Certifi cation (10) issued by the Depart- ment of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM), and Guidelines for Control of Cosmetic Products issued by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) under the Ministry of Health of Malaysia. From the documents, related themes and classifi cation were identifi ed in assisting the determination of halal status for the cosmetic ingredients’ evaluation process. RESULTS THE CRITICAL POINTS OF THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HALAL AND GENERAL COSMETICS AND THEIR CLASSIFICATIONS Table I describes the four critical points of the differences between halal cosmetic and general cosmetic. According to Pandagel et al. (17), the main control points are ingredi- ents and utilities that are put in contact with the products. However, this study identifi ed four critical points of differences, namely, (i) ingredient, (ii) processing, (iii) safety, and (iv) ethics and responsibility. Based on the JAKIM guideline (10) and MS 2634 (16), the source of ingredients can be categorized into halal, haram, and syubhah (18). Meanwhile, other categories are used by the NPRA (19), which are safe—allowed with limitations and allowed due to technically unavoidable—and prohibited ingredients . The different categories are due to the differ- ent perspectives and responsibilities by different authority bodies. For example, JAKIM focuses on the halal aspect thus, the categories are closed to Islamic terms, namely, halal (permitted), haram (prohibited), and syubhah (gray area or critical). However the NPRA focuses on health and safety thus, the categories are safe, allowed with limitations, and prohibited. The processing and safety aspects are also part of the characteristics of the ingredients that are included in the manufacturing protocol because of their impact on the end product to achieve the halal status. For example, a product that uses all permitted ingredients will be categorized as a halal product. However, if a product is contaminated with prohibited materials such as fi lth (najs) or non-halal additive, then it can be categorized as syubhah or critical product that needs further evaluation. In that sense, an ethical and responsible worker or person in charge needs to examine and evaluate all the source of origins and procedures. Even though ethics and responsibility are not emphasized, they are also part of the process that leads to clean and pure halal product in generating the comfortable feeling to meet the main objective of halal–tayyib (11). In short, the utilities aforementioned can be defi ned as the related process of cosmetic formulation and manufacturing, including the safety impact of ingredients to the health, processing impact to the halal status, and ethics and responsibility of the manufacturers or industry players that affect the whole halal–tayyib relationship of the cosmetic prod- ucts (10,11,16). This is the main reason that Malaysia is applying the concept of “halal built-in” in the halal cosmetic certifi cation. “Halal built-in” is a systematic approach to the halal product development which begins with the predefi ned objectives by the man- agement (16).