SMIIC Training Program 2018 was held on the 16-20 July 2018 in İstanbul, Turkey. The training was attended by 20 delegates from Afghanistan, Algeria, Djibouti, Gambia, Guinea, Iran, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Niger, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Uganda and given in 3 official languages of SMIIC (English, Arabic and French).

The Training Program was funded by the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation(COMCEC)  of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation(OIC) under the project title “Harmonization of National Halal Standards with the OIC/SMIIC Halal Standards” (No: 2017-SMIIC-437. The program consisted of 2 parts:

Part 1. Introduction, implementation and use of OIC/SMIIC Halal Standards held between 16 July 2018.

Part 2. OIC/SMIIC 1: 2011 General Guidelines on Halal Food Auditor Training held between 17-20 July 2018.

Part 1 included training of experts from SMIIC Member States regarding the procedures for adoption, implementation and use of the OIC/SMIIC series of 3 Halal Standards whilst providing training in SMIIC Information System (IS) and Technical Committee (TC) work.

Part 2 was the OIC/SMIIC 1: 2011 General Guidelines on Halal Food Auditor Training which aimed to give training on the auditing of food producers and slaughterhouses according to OIC/SMIIC 1: 2011 General Guidelines on Halal Food to experts from SMIIC Member States.

The program included on site visit on the 19 July 2018 to:

1. Istanbul Halk Ekmek
2. Namet Gıda
3. Turkish Standards Institute (TSE) Laboratory in TSE Gebze Campus

We would like to thank all three(3) institutions for their kind gesture of accepting our visit and great hospitality shown.

 We would also like to thank COMCEC for accepting to fund our project and the Development Bank of Turkey who has supplied the funding, and also for their kind visit during the training program.

The training was completed with an exam and qualifying participants received their certificates.