This app makes sure dinner is halal

Earlier this year, Alfia Gitani, who runs a food stall in Depok, Indonesia, was looking for inspiration. The 26-year-old was tired of making the same food over and over. That’s when she found and downloaded the Momasa app, which features halal recipes and cooking tutorials using halal ingredients.

“It’s easy to get recipes online,” Gitani told Rest of World . “But you also have to know how to cook it. The recipes in the app are also halal, so you don’t have to worry about the ingredients.”

In Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, ensuring that a meal is halal is important. Halal is Arabic for “permissible,” and halal food refers to food allowed by Islamic law — the most common examples are meat from animals slaughtered while alive and healthy, and by a Muslim, and food that doesn’t contain pork and its by-products, such as gelatin made from pig skin. Indonesian authorities can be strict about adherence to halal standards. In 2022, a restaurant drew public outrage for making the popular national dish rendang with pork instead of beef; the owner of the restaurant was summoned by the police.

This year, the Indonesian government issued a regulation that requires every food establishment to obtain halal certification by October. The government has also made a push to promote “halal tourism” — geared toward tourists who adhere to Islamic law — across Indonesia. In 2020, the world’s halal economy, referring to goods and services that conform to Islamic law, was valued at $1.9 trillion. Indonesia’s halal economy was valued at $184 billion then and is projected to reach $281.6 billion by 2025 .

To support the adoption of halal, the government and the private sector have developed apps that check if food, outlets, and cosmetic products meet halal requirements. Momasa, launched in 2023, is one of at least a dozen halal apps available in Indonesia created by private companies or religious organizations, like the Indonesian Ulema Council. The apps allow users to search for halal products available in nearby stores; some can scan a product’s barcode to confirm if it is halal.

Momasa was created by a company named PT Aplikasi Masak Mendunia, following concerns over the mislabeling of non-halal food, Tuti Nurhayati, the company’s chief business officer, told Rest of World.

Directed at housewives, the app features halal recipes, cooking lessons, and lists of halal restaurants — it has more than 10,000 downloads combined on Apple’s App Store and the Google Play store.

Momasa is currently available in 12 cities across Indonesia.

“We do research first before we include a halal restaurant in our directory,” Nurhayati said. “So we don’t just display halal restaurants there but we also have conducted research on halal certification issued by the [Indonesian Ulema Council].”

The company plans to expand its restaurant database to more cities across the archipelago.

“Most of our users are housewives and small, micro-business owners,” said Nurhayati. “But we also plan to expand and reach younger audiences.” ▰

Adi Renaldi is a multimedia journalist covering climate, technology, and socio-economic inclusivity based in Jakarta, Indonesia.