After the approval of the establishment of the International Halal Accreditation Forum (IHAF) by the Government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), JAS-ANZ is to become a foundation member at a signing ceremony to be held in Dubai today, Wednesday 4th of May 2016. It is to be held in conjunction with the event of UAE hosting the ISO/CASCO meeting 2016 in Dubai.

JAS-ANZ will be represented by the Chairman of the Governing Board, Mr Mike Willing.

Other foundation members are to include:

• Dubai Accreditation Department (DAC, UAE),

• Emirates National Accreditation System,

• General Coordination for Accreditation (CGCRE, Brazil),

• American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA, USA)

• Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNAC, Pakistan),

• Entidad Nacional de Acreditacion (ENAC, Spain)

• Gulf Centre for Accreditation (GAC)

• Saudi Accreditation Committee (SAC, Saudi Arabia) and

• United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS, United Kingdom)

The primary objective of establishing the IHAF is to harmonise conformity assessment practices in the Halal field, and establish Multilateral Recognition Agreements between member bodies that will facilitate Halal trade globally.