Nagdesisyon ang organizers ng 30th Southeast Asian Games na gawin nang halal-certified ang lahat ng pagkaing ihahain sa kasagsagan ng palaro.
Sa pulong balitaan araw ng Miyerkules, sinabi ni SEA Games executive chef Bruce Lim na paraan ito para maipakita sa mga atleta at bisitang Muslim na pinahahalagahan sila.
“We opted to go for full halal for the SEA Games because we wanted to make way for our Muslim brothers and sisters to say that we care about them,” ani Lim.
Sakop anya ng full halal menu ang lahat ng SEA Games venues sa bansa.
“This covers all venues. All our third-party suppliers, caterers are halal-certified,” ani Lim.
Aminado ang head chef na ‘challenging’ ito dahil ilang hotel lang sa bansa ang halal-certified at hindi naman Muslim-dominated country ang Pilipinas.
“It was tough for a country that’s not primarily a Muslim country or a no-pork eating country to execute this,” ani Lim.
Giit ni Lim, hindi rin naman kawalan sa mga tao kung hindi makakain ng baboy sa loob ng 15 araw.
“We wanted to be fair with everyone and I think that people who do consume pork can live for 15 days without it. “If they wanted to eat pork, they can always leave the venue and eat somewhere else but for our Muslim brothers and sisters who want to make sure that they had something here that they can consume and that’s safe for them, that was our main concern,” ani Lim.
Inaasahang nasa ‘quarter’ ng 12,000 atleta na lalahok sa SEA Games ay Muslim kaya’t kailangan talaga ang halal food.