Q&A

Answer

The current list of food supplements approved by the Ministry is published in the Food Safety Information System (ggbs.tarim.gov.tr), in the section for the list of approved food supplements; the product name, company details and approval status can be seen there. Approval is product-specific: one approved product does not make a company's other products approved — each product must appear on the list separately. A product not on the list is not considered approved; if you come across one, you can report it through the Güvenilir Gıda mobile application or the ALO 174 Food Line.

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Food supplements are not medicines and may not be used for medicinal purposes. They are products with a defined daily dose, prepared in forms such as capsules, tablets, lozenges, powder sachets, liquid ampoules or dropper bottles, from nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrate, fibre, fatty acids and amino acids, or from plant- and animal-derived substances with nutritional or physiological effects, in order to supplement a normal diet. The legislation requires their labels to carry the statement that the product is not a medicine and is not to be used for preventing or treating disease. Presenting a product as a food supplement while claiming it is effective against viruses is therefore contrary to the legislation.

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No. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry grants no approval to any food, food supplements included, on a claim that it makes people lose or gain weight, increases height, enhances sexual performance, helps people stop smoking, cures disease, renews cells, boosts intelligence or strengthens immunity. Health claims that may appear on food labels fall within the remit of the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (TİTCK) of the Ministry of Health. Products marketed with such claims are being promoted contrary to the legislation; they are not regarded as food supplements and may pose a health risk to consumers.

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Food supplements are products used to support a normal diet. They may contain nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, protein, fibre, fatty acids and amino acids, as well as concentrated or extracted forms of plant and animal derived substances, bioactive components and similar materials. They can be prepared singly or as mixtures, are presented in forms such as capsules, tablets, lozenges, powders, liquid ampoules or dropper bottles, and have a defined daily intake dose. In Türkiye food supplements are treated as food under Law No. 5996; they are produced and inspected in line with that legislation. A food supplement is therefore not a medicine and is not used to treat disease.

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Halal certification is the work of bodies that assess whether a product or service complies with halal requirements and then issue a certificate. Halal accreditation looks one level higher: the Halal Accreditation Agency of Türkiye (HAK) evaluates those conformity assessment bodies against nationally and internationally recognised technical criteria, confirms their competence, and audits and monitors them at regular intervals. In short, a certificate concerns the product, while accreditation concerns the body that issued it. This two-tier structure lets you ask whether the halal certificate in front of you came from a body that is itself supervised. This explains an administrative framework only; it is not a religious ruling about any particular product.

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In Türkiye, halal accreditation services may only be provided by the Halal Accreditation Agency (HAK), which was established as the sole authorised institution in this field. Its legal basis is Law No. 7060 on Certain Arrangements Concerning the Halal Accreditation Agency; some of its articles were amended by Law No. 7408, published in the Official Gazette on 4 June 2022. HAK accredits halal conformity assessment bodies based in Türkiye and abroad, and it sets and applies the criteria used in this field. It also represents Türkiye before international and regional accreditation bodies and signs mutual recognition agreements.

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The Halal Accreditation Agency publishes an up-to-date list of the halal conformity assessment bodies it has accredited on its own website. The list shows each body's name, place of activity, accreditation number and status, together with the issue and expiry dates of the accreditation, and the scope can be viewed separately. Because an accreditation may be active, suspended or withdrawn, checking the issuing body's name against this list is the most practical step. This check concerns the body's accreditation only; the scope and validity of the product's own certificate must still be read from the certificate itself.

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According to the Halal Accreditation Agency's own corporate description, halal today is not limited to food products. Demand for halal certification arises across a wide range of sectors, including finance, textiles, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, logistics and tourism. The Agency also stresses that the concept of halal covers being wholesome, hygienic and of good quality at every stage from production until the product reaches the consumer. Halal assessment is therefore a process that looks at the whole supply chain rather than at a single ingredient.

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SMIIC is the Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries, established under the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Because a common, harmonised language has not yet been built between countries in halal certification, differing standards and certification systems can turn into technical barriers to international trade. The Halal Accreditation Agency regards the wider adoption of the OIC/SMIIC standards, prepared with contributions from OIC member states, and the creation of a harmonised accreditation system as key to reducing those barriers. The Agency's own accreditation processes are also conducted on the basis of these standards.

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The Halal Accreditation Mark is the symbol used by a halal conformity assessment body accredited by the Halal Accreditation Agency in the reports and halal certificates it issues. Accredited bodies are also entitled to use the mark in printed and visual documents and in promotional and advertising material. The rules that must be followed when referring to the mark in writing or in images are set out in the logo usage and traceability guide published by the Agency. If those rules are not observed, the Agency may request corrective action, suspend or withdraw the accreditation, and publicly announce the non-compliant practices.

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The Ministry of Trade has moved the inspection of imported products bearing halal claims onto TAREKS, the risk-based control system for foreign trade. The Communique on Import Inspection of Products with Halal Conformity Certificates (Product Safety and Inspection: 2026/35), which sets the legal and administrative framework for these inspections, has been published in the Official Gazette. According to the Halal Accreditation Agency's announcement of 25 June 2026, the new legislation enters into force three months later, and TAREKS will then be used to check whether a product was certified by a body accredited by the Agency. This requirement is not limited to the list annexed to the Communique: it applies to every imported product placed on the market bearing a halal claim.

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No. The Halal Accreditation Agency of Türkiye (HAK) does not issue halal certificates; certification falls outside its remit. Halal certificates are issued by conformity assessment bodies, commonly called certification bodies. HAK's role is to audit and monitor those bodies and then accredit them, that is, to confirm that they are technically competent to issue certificates. A company seeking a halal certificate for a product or a site therefore applies to a certification body rather than to HAK, while the current list of bodies accredited by HAK is published on the Agency's own website.

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The Agency rejects this idea explicitly in its own statements: HAK is not a religious ruling authority and does not decide what is or is not halal. Its work is to accredit, against the relevant standards, those bodies that operate under those standards and issue halal certificates, that is, to grant them the permissions they need to certify and then to audit them. The aim is to help build a certification structure that is recognised internationally and visible to consumers. Accreditation is therefore an administrative and technical framework; it contains no religious ruling about a product. Whether a given product is halal must be assessed separately, by looking at which body issued the certificate and against which standard.

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According to the Halal Accreditation Agency, no such conclusion should be drawn. In Islamic jurisprudence halal means what is not forbidden, what is permitted and what complies with the rules, and the definition also covers a product's compliance with health and cleanliness criteria (tayyib). Certification carried out by bodies accredited by HAK covers not only compliance with Islamic rules but also the requirements of internationally recognised food safety and hygiene standards. By contrast, the only thing that can be said about a product without a certificate is that it has not been certified; it does not follow that the product is not halal. Where you are unsure, reading the ingredient list and, if necessary, asking the manufacturer is a sounder approach than inferring a ruling from the absence of a certificate.

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For bodies requesting halal accreditation from HAK, the assessment, audit, approval and monitoring processes are conducted around the OIC/SMIIC standards and the ISO standards referenced within them. Those standards are prepared by the Standards and Metrology Institute for the Islamic Countries, which operates under the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the halal texts frequently refer to ISO standards. In addition, HAK publishes its own application documents, and applicant bodies are expected to meet the requirements defined there alongside the standards themselves. The rules to be followed on matters such as application, audit planning and use of the accreditation mark are set out in those documents. This places the certification practices of different bodies on a shared technical basis.

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HAK currently runs three different halal accreditation programmes. Bodies that certify products and services as halal, bodies that certify people who will work as auditors or experts in the halal field, and laboratories that carry out tests for halal conformity may all apply to the Agency. The Agency's programme page also carries a heading for proficiency testing providers in the halal field. For each programme, the underlying OIC/SMIIC standard and the mandatory HAK application documents are set out separately. The legal framework for the programmes is drawn by the Regulation on the Accreditation of Halal Conformity Assessment Bodies, published in the Official Gazette of 16 October 2019, issue 30920.

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Yes. A body applying for accreditation first goes through verification of its documents and information, and then through an on-site assessment consisting of an office audit and a witness audit. A body that earns an accreditation certificate is not left there: it undergoes regular surveillance audits at least once a year. The rules and procedures of the process are set by the Regulation on the Accreditation of Halal Conformity Assessment Bodies, published in the Official Gazette of 16 October 2019, issue 30920, while the application guides and reference documents are published on HAK's website. Because oversight is continuous, a body's accreditation status can change over time, so it is worth checking the body named on your certificate against the Agency's current list.