The Dubai Central Laboratory, DCL, at Dubai Municipality has launched a new service to verify Halal cosmetics and personal care products. The Halal testing is being conducted with the help of the best technologies and international practices by DCL experts.

The products include lipsticks, creams and soaps and the service is being provided to protect the community from the undesirable nature of ingredients and methods used in the manufacturing of these products.

"As the concept of Halal is most often centered around food products, DCL undertook the important role of developing this initiative using the FTIR (Fourier Transform-Infrared Spectroscopy) technology to detect the presence of pork fat and to confirm it by using Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS)," Amin Ahmed, Director of DCL Department, said.

"The new service is useful to the customers of these products, traders, statutory and regulatory bodies. It is one of the regulatory requirements of the Gulf Standard Specifications, which states that these products are free of pork fat and its derivatives," he added.