Halal Materiality, Certification, and Labour in Indonesia

Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, is currently the only Muslim country to mandate halal (permissible according to Islamic principles) certification for all domestically sold food products. Within this regulatory system, halal meat occupies a particularly challenging position: meat and meat-based products are classified as high risk and therefore require full halal certification. This article, based on ethnographic research conducted between 2022 and 2026 in slaughterhouses, examines the governance of halal meat as a material, regulatory, and moral field, conceptualised as “halal materiality.” Focusing on key actors, including state officials, slaughterers, veterinarians, and business people, the article shows how state-driven efforts to professionalise halal production generate everyday forms of constraint management within uneven regulatory systems. The article argues that dominant moral discourses surrounding halal tend to individualise ethical responsibility while obscuring the structural constraints shaping production, including labour shortages and the high costs of certification. By foregrounding slaughterers’ embodied practices, the article demonstrates that halal is produced through ongoing negotiation between embodied ritual practice and bureaucratic certification, and that its apparent stability rests on contested material, labour, and infrastructural arrangements rather than on certification alone.