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For example kosher berries or salad are checked more thoroughly for insects than usual as far as I know, so could be attractive to non-jews who don't want to accidentally eat insects.

Are there similar reasons to search out or avoid halal food for non-religious reasons?

I restrict this question to non-meat food because there is an existing question where the answers all focus on meat.

Kate Gregory
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Nobody
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2 Answers2

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Since Halal food can't contain pork meat / by-products or alcohol, you'll see some ingredients substitutes (for example, Halal candy will not contain pork gelatin for sure; instead probably agar-agar will be used). So it might be advantageous if you can't consume alcohol or are allergic to pork.

As with any substitutions, sometimes you'll see a difference in texture / flavor, sometimes not.

Kat
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Luciano
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    Of course, by-products! Another scenario in which that might be useful is if you are a strict vegetarian/vegan and want to eat candy without gelatin. – LSchoon Jun 10 '20 at 14:06
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    @LSchoon I didn't mention vegetarian diet because sometimes the substitute ingredient might be from another animal! So halal doesn't automatically mean meat-free. – Luciano Jun 10 '20 at 14:08
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    @LSchoon: ... for example, you can buy bovine or even fish gelatin. – cbeleites unhappy with SX Jun 10 '20 at 14:32
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I am by no means an expert on this, but Wikipedia suggests that there may not be a (big) difference between halal and non-halal for non-meat foods:

According to the Quran, the only foods explicitly forbidden are meat from animals that die of themselves, blood, the meat of pigs and any food dedicated to other than God.

The one exception would be alcohol or other intoxicants, because you will not find halal-certified alcohol for obvious reasons.

LSchoon
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    eating anything that could be harmful to the human body is Haram (non-Halal), like snakes, scorptions, etc. A Halal food is a food that does not contain pork, its "derivatives", non-halal meat, its derivatives (like gelatin), other illicit food, its derivatives and alcohol (and other intoxicants/drugs). – Betty Jun 11 '20 at 09:24