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Halal concepts are now being put into practice, across multilayers of trade and industrial services worldwide. Syariah compliant certifications championed by NGOs, independent bodies and government agencies, allow acceptance of Halal certifications and recognition of products, as fit and Halal for Muslim consumption, for domestic uses, and exports. Today’s global market are now trending towards capturing the lucrative Halal trade, profitably, with common household items such as Halal meat, food and beverages, becoming more accessible globally. Other range of services, such as Halal hospitality, tourism, and Syariah compliant banking systems; and tangible non-food products, like cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and toiletries, are expanding to cater for the Muslims’ worldwide needs across the continents. This article focuses on the training that had been conducted by the Institute of Halal and Research Management (IHRAM) in the year of 2014 and 2015 on the Halal meat business international industry players, focusing on Pakistani meat produces, traders, importers and government authorities. Does the training provide opportunities in allowing negotiable terms and conditions, thus aligning strategies that will mutually benefit developing markets of halal meat in Malaysia, and Pakistan? Can the training become a platform for smart partnerships and mutual recognition of bilateral trade negotiations, in halal meat production within differing nations? Can training negotiate linkages with halal meat importers from other countries and work actively in increasing the export level of Halal meat into Malaysia? This article, therefore, explain the complexity of negotiation outcomes and the challenges faced by the Halal meat traders of different countries to agree on common areas and establish sustainable relationships of future trade and bilateral communications to build the Halal industry linkages internationally.

The abundance of untreated sewage that consists of valuable nutrients and water scarcity has motivated the community to process and recycle the waste through efficient and sustainable approach. The presence of dissolved nutrients and emerging contaminants are increasing lately due to the rapid anthropogenic activities. Over the years, many studies on sewage processing have been reported in the literature: bioaugmentation, membrane bioreactor, moving bed biofilm as well as adsorption technique for nutrients recovery. The advantages and limitations of these technologies are discussed in brief. Finally, the treated sewage that still contain useful nutrients can be recycled as irrigation water for crops and non-crops plantation, toilet flushing etc. Nutrients that were adsorbed in the filter can be utilized by plant when it is used as growing media.

Pork identification in raw meat using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was developed. Total DNA from meat samples were successfully extracted and found to be of high quality and produced clear PCR products. Porcine-specific molecular beacon probe and primers that amplifies 119 bp of the cytochrome b gene fragment of swine (Sus scrofa domestica) was used. Analysis of data showed that the C q (quantification cycle) from 10 ng/μl porcine DNA is (18.70 ± 0.12 to 19.08 ± 0.06). Meanwhile, the other samples exhibited negative result, which confirmed the specificity of the primers. The method also showed that the limit of detection of pork was 0.0001 ng. Based on the regression analysis of the standard curve, the 96% efficiency of real-time PCR was achieved with high correlation coefficient (r 2 = 0.9989). Sensitivity of the assay in discriminating pork as low as 0.1% (w/w) pork in pork–beef mixtures was also obtained. Reproducibility of the assay was successfully validated by applying sample and experimental replicates in every assay being conducted. Thus, this methodology could serve as a fast and sensitive method for detection of pork for meat species verification.

A novel class of nanobiosensor was developed by integrating a 27-nucleotideAluIfragment of swine cytochrome b (cytb) gene to a 3-nm diameter citrate-tannate coated gold nanoparticle (GNP). The biosensor detected 0.5% and 1% pork in raw and 2.5-h autoclaved pork-beef binary admixtures in a single step without any separation or washing. The hybridization kinetics of the hybrid sensor was studied with synthetic andAluIdigested real pork targets from moderate to extreme target concentrations and a sigmoidal relationship was found. Using the kinetic curve, a convenient method for quantifying and counting target DNA copy number was developed. The accuracy of the method was over 90% and 80% for raw and autoclaved pork-beef binary admixtures in the range of 5–100% pork adulteration. The biosensor probe identified a target DNA sequence that was several-folds shorter than a typical PCR-template. This offered the detection and quantitation of potential targets in highly processed or degraded samples where PCR amplification was not possible due to template crisis. The assay was a viable alternative approach of qPCR for detecting, quantifying and counting copy number of shorter size DNA sequences to address a wide ranging biological problem in food industry, diagnostic laboratories and forensic medicine.

We used 40 ± 5 nm gold nanoparticles (GNPs) as colorimetric sensor to visually detect swine-specific conserved sequence and nucleotide mismatch in PCR-amplified and non-amplified mitochondrial DNA mixtures to authenticate species. Colloidal GNPs changed color from pinkish-red to gray-purple in 2 mM PBS. Visually observed results were clearly reflected by the dramatic reduction of surface plasmon resonance peak at 530 nm and the appearance of new features in the 620‐800 nm regions in their absorption spectra. The particles were stabilized against salt-induced aggregation upon the adsorption of single-stranded DNA. The PCR products, without any additional processing, were hybridized with a 17-base probe prior to exposure to GNPs. At a critical annealing temperature (55 ◦ C) that differentiated matched and mismatched base pairing, the probe was hybridized to pig PCR product and dehybridized from the deer product. The dehybridized probe stuck to GNPs to prevent them from salt-induced aggregation and retained their characteristic red color. Hybridization of a 27-nucleotide probe to swine mitochondrial DNA identified them in pork‐venison, pork‐shad and venison‐shad binary admixtures, eliminating the need of PCR amplification. Thus the assay was applied to authenticate species both in PCR-amplified and non-amplified heterogeneous biological samples. The results were determined visually and validated by absorption spectroscopy. The entire assay (hybridization plus visual detection) was performed in less than 10 min. The LOD (for genomic DNA) of the assay was 6 μ gm l −1 swine DNA in mixed meat samples. We believe the assay can be applied for species assignment in food analysis, mismatch detection in genetic screening and homology studies between closely related species. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version)

A 27-nucleotide AluI fragment of swine cytochrome b (cytb) gene was integrated to a 3-nm diameter citrate- tannate coated gold nanoparticle to fabricate a species specific nanobiosensor. The biosensor was applied to authenticate pork adulteration in autoclaved pork-beef mixtures. The sensor was found to be sensitive enough to detect 0.5 pork in raw and 2.5-h autoclaved mixed samples in a single step without any separation or washing. The hybridization kinetics of the hybrid sensor was studied with synthetic targets from moderate to extreme target concentrations and a sigmoidal relationship was found. The kinetic curve was used to develop a convenient method for quantifying and counting target DNA copy number. The biosensor probe was hybridized with a target DNA that was several-folds shorter than a typical PCR-template. This offered the detection and quantitation of potential targets in highly processed meat products or extensively degraded samples where PCR-based identification technique might not work due to the degradation of comparatively longer DNA. The assay was a viable alternative approach of qPCR for detecting, quantifying and counting copy number of shorter size DNA sequences in degraded samples to address a range of biological problems such as food analysis, biodiagnostics, environmental monitoring, genetic screening and forensic investigations.