AN OVERVIEW OF BUDU PRODUCTION IN KELANTAN FROM HALAL AND POLICY ASPECTS

Budu or fish sauce is a traditional food of the East Coast communities in Peninsular Malaysia that is produced through a fermentation process between 6 to 12 months in the covered containers known as unprocessed budu. Meanwhile, the processed budu is prepared by grounding coarsely unprocessed budu before mixing with tamarind paste, palm sugar, sugar, monosodium glutamate (MSG), food colouring, and then boiled. Once the mixture is filtered, processed budu is cooled, bottled and marketed all over Malaysia. Most of the manufacturers (23) are located in Kelantan and Terengganu. However, based on the recent data, only one brand of budu is halal-certified as compared to other Malaysian fermented fish products, i.e., belacan (243), pekasam (14), and cencaluk (13). The study offers some important insights into the issues that arise in budu production from the halal and policy aspects that may hinder the manufacturers from applying halal certification. The use of qualitative studies is a well-established approach in this study. Five broad themes emerged from the analysis, the low quality of raw materials (anchovies) and lack of awareness and knowledge base in food safety and hygiene practices among the manufacturers and workers are identified as the main factors contributing to scare-mongering against halal certification. In addition, we found shortage of raw materials (anchovies), lack of incentive and specification standards for the quality of budu were the bottleneck of halal application among the budu entrepreneur. Therefore, more outstanding efforts are needed to ensure the involvement and cooperation from the government agencies and regulators and budu manufacturers to help them penetrate the international market. Indeed, a desire is needed to boost the exportation of budu globally following the market demand and opportunities.  &nbsp

Abstracts of the International Conference on Business, Accounting and Finance 2023: Embracing New Business Paradigm Shifts

This book presents the abstracts of the selected contributions to the second International Academic Conference 2023, held on 25-26 February 2023 by the International University of Malaya-Wales (IUMW), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. IAC 2023 is the coming together of researchers and industry. It’s a place to gather and share groundbreaking ideas, discoveries, and experiences on a variety of thought leadership topics covered under this year’s conference theme, “Embracing New Business Paradigm Shifts". Conference Title: International Academic Conference 2023Conference Acronym: IAC 2023Conference Theme: Embracing New Business Paradigm ShiftsConference Date: 25-26 February 2023Conference Venue: IUMW, MalaysiaConference Organizer: International University of Malaya-Wales, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysi