This study aims to determine the acceptability of halal foods among non-Muslim students in public secondary schools in Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat, Philippines. Specifically, it seeks to understand students' awareness of halal food standards and concepts, and whether their level of awareness impacts acceptability. The study will survey 150 non-Muslim students across 10 public secondary schools. It will analyze students' demographic profiles and levels of awareness of halal food's ethics, hygiene, nutrition, quality, and labeling. It will also examine students' understanding of halal concepts and awareness of halal foods to determine acceptability. The study aims to provide guidance to school administrators, teachers, and local leaders on halal food

1. HALAL FOOD: ACCEPTABILITY
TO NON-MUSLIM STUDENTS
OF PUBLIC SECONDARY
SCHOOLS OF LAMBAYONG
FAREED M. GUIAPAL

2. INTRODUCTION
 Multicultural society is the trend in our society nowadays.
Merging and mixing of cultures and different faith and
religion is quite common in our community. One of the
thing that makes people bond together is the food that we
consume. This bond is often compromised between
conflicting culture because of different belief in faith and
religion.

3. INTRODUCTION
 Non-Muslims who are conscious on their food diet tend to
observe the labels in the food products that they bought. As
what Felix Immanuel 2016 says on his blogs, “Therefore, let
us obey and have the zeal of God by not eating halal, but let
it not hinder building His kingdom.” It leads to the addition
of division of togetherness within the community as
Muslims strongly observes the prohibition of eating haram
(foods that are forbidden to Muslim to consume like pork
and blood) foods.

4. INTRODUCTION
 This study seeks to understand the knowledge and behavior
of the new generation towards the halal foods especially to
those devoted non-Muslim families who are conscious on
the principle of halal. It also aims to give significant answers
on if halal food in general is acceptable in the diverse society
of Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat which has different tribes like
Ilocano, Maguindanaon, Hiligaynon, Cebuano, Maranao etc.

5. Statement of the problem
 This study aims to determine the acceptability of halal foods to non-
Muslim students of public secondary schools of Lambayong, Sultan
Kudarat.
Specifically, it sought to answer the following questions:
1. What is the demographic profile of the respondents in terms of:
1.1 Age
1.2 Gender
1.3 Tribe
1.4 Religion
1.5 Grade Level

6. Statement of the problem
2. What is the level of awareness of the students on the halal food in terms of:
2.1 Ethical standards of food products
2.2 Hygiene
2.3 Nutrition
2.4 Quality
2.5 Halal logo
3. What is the level of acceptability of halal food by non-Muslim students in public secondary
schools in:
3.1 Understanding on halal concepts
3.2 Awareness on halal foods
4. Is there any relationship between the level of awareness of halal food and the acceptability
of non-Muslim students in public secondary school.

7. Conceptual Framework of the study
The schematic diagram below shows the Independent Variable and Dependent Variable in the acceptability of
halal food to non-Muslim students of Public secondary schools in municipality of Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat.
The first box contains Independent Variable Halal food which pertains to Ethical standard of food products,
Nutrition, Hygiene, Quality and Halal Logo, this connected to the second box is the Dependent variable which is
Acceptability of Halal food to non-Muslim students that pertains to Understanding halal concepts and
Awareness on halal foods.

8. Hypothesis:
 Ho: There is no significant difference between
the level of awareness of halal food and the
acceptability of non-Muslim students in public
secondary schools in Lambayong, Sultan
Kudarat.

9. Significance of the Study
This study will be beneficial to the following:
To School Administrators. the result of this study will be used as basis to make policy
improvement in terms of regulating school canteens and surrounding cafeterias within
school premises with regards to serving halal foods to students. It would also help in the
implementation of the DepEd Order No. 28, s. 2018 Oplan Kalusugan 2019 which aims to
provide and promote sustainable school health and nutrition program.
To the Teacher. Teachers is one of the main character in a school setting. The result of the
study will help them to give advises to its student and reduce the incident on discrimination
and teasing among students because of their food preferences.

10. Significance of the Study
To the Local Leaders. The result of the study will be the basis of
local leaders to guide and make adjustments on local residents
and students on the issue of Halal foods.
To the society. Cultural tolerance is one of the main ingredient in
promoting peace within a well diverse community. Food is very
essential on bringing togetherness and bond within group of
people. This study would give knowledge on the level of
understanding of non-Muslim to the preparation and halal food
in general.

11. Locale of the Study
The setting of this research study will be conducted at Public
Secondary Schools of municipality of Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat.
Scope and Delimitation
The study will focus on the level of acceptability to non-Muslim
students of public secondary schools of the municipality of
Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat on December 2021.

12. Research Participants
The respondents of this study will be the official
enrolled high school learners in the public
secondary school of Lambayong, Sultan
Kudarat. The cluster sampling method will be
used to gather data for the research study,
wherein 150 Students of 10 public secondary
schools of municipality of Lambayong, Sultan
Kudarat.

13. DEFINITION OF TERMS
Halal refers to free from any component that Muslims are prohibited from consuming according
to Islamic law (Shariah). Processed, made, produced, manufactured and/or stored using utensils,
equipment and/or machinery that have been cleansed according to Islamic law.
Halal Certification refers to the process of giving document that guarantees that products and
services aimed at the Muslim population meet the requirements of Islamic law and therefore are
suitable for consumption. It is a process which ensures the features and quality of the products
according to the rules established by the Islamic Council that allow the use of the mark Halal. It is
mainly applied to meat products and other food products such as milk, canned food and additives.
Specifically, for meat products Halal certifies that the animals were slaughtered in a single cut,
thoroughly bled, and their meat have not been in contact with animals slaughtered otherwise and,
especially, with pork.

14. DEFINITION OF TERMS
Halal Foods refers to lawful and permitted to be eaten by those observing Islamic teachings.
Muslims are not allowed to consume foods or beverages that are Haram, or forbidden.
Halal logo refers to a symbol that signifies that a product is approved through halal certification.
It is a bright green and white circular badge with the white “Halal” lettering in the uppercase
placed under or above the same inscription in Arabic.
Haram refers to forbidden or proscribed by Islamic law.
Muslim refers to people who follow or practice Islam.
Consumers refers to a person who purchases goods and services for personal use.
Sharia refers to rules by which a Muslim society is organized and governed, and it provides the
means to resolve conflicts among individuals and between the individual and the state.

15. Chapter II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND
STUDIES
Religious belief and cultural background plays a significant factor in sculpting social behavior.
Differences in religious affiliations tend to influence the way people live, the choices they
make, what they eat, and whom they associate with. The concept of halal food is generally
attributed to Muslim consumers. Increasing demand and popularity of halal food is
recognized internationally. Despite of this increasing demand even for non-Muslim
consumers, scholars doubted that the halal concept is not well understood by Non-Muslim
consumers due to lack of knowledge and information about halal (Golnaz Renai et al., 2010).
Other than that, lack of insights on Non-Muslim behavior towards halal consumption as well
as no significant evidence indicated that Non-Muslims are well aware of the benefits of
consuming halal products limiting the opportunity to efficiently venture and expand into the
halal market itself (Vloreen Nity Mathewa et al., 2014; Golnaz Renai et al., 2012; Golnaz Renai
et al., 2010).

16.  Past studies documented that health benefits are the main reason behind the consumption
of halal food among the non-Muslim consumers that consist of Chinese and Indian (Lee S-H
et al., 2016). These benefits are in line with the non-Muslim consumers ‘consideration and
preference to consume safe and fresh ingredients on their daily food intake (Prescott J et al.,
2012). However, despite the attraction of health benefits offered by halal food, ambiguous
evaluation emerged among the non-Muslim consumers. The Islamic slaughtering method,
which is the crucial part of halal food production, is considered as inhumane (Rezai G., et al
2015). Consequently, the purchase intention on halal food among the non-Muslim
consumers remain inconclusive. The ambiguous condition is therefore would lead to the
hesitation among the non-Muslim consumers to purchase halal food. Drawing form the
discussion, there is a gap in the literature that need to be addressed. In particular, to
investigate the degree of halal food knowledge. In particular, to investigate the degree of
halal food knowledge among the non-Muslim consumers that acts as an informational basis
that significantly influence their evaluation or attitude towards halal food (Jamal A and
Sharifuddin J 2015). In turn, the ambiguous evaluation or attitude could be reduced that
leads to a more accurate conclusion of the halal food purchase intention among the non-
Muslim consumers.

17. Chapter III
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The study will use the descriptive survey type of research design. In this
study, the researcher gathers information through survey questionnaires
drafted with due consultation and approval from the Adviser, Statistician
and English Critic.
Respondents of the Study
The respondents of the study will be the one-hundred (150) Public
Secondary High School students who are officially enrolled in ten (10)
identified secondary school in the municipality of Lambayong, Sultan
Kudarat for the School Year 2021-2022. The respondents will be selected
through random sampling method.

18. Data Gathering Procedure
The researcher writes a request for the School Principals of different secondary
schools within the municipality of Lambayong. Requested a copy of the list and
number of high school students and take the number of the 1/3 population for
each which is 150 respondents filling up the survey questionnaire. 1/3 is used
to have a strong and validated output of the study. The researcher used Cluster
Sampling Technique in the study. Orientation and distribution of the survey
questionnaires to the respondents then will be followed.
Data Gathering Instrument
The researcher together with his Adviser, Statistician and English Critic will
outline a survey questionnaire that has three (3) parts, the part one profiling of
the respondents. Part two is to determine the level of awareness of the non-
Muslim students in halal food in terms of Ethical standards of food products,
Hygiene, Quality and Halal logo.
First part of the questionnaire consist of demographic profile, the second part
has four terms and each terms has 6 questions. The third part has 2 terms and
each term has 3 questionnaire. The overall total of questionnaire is 30 items.

19. Samples and Sampling Techniques
 Sampling Technique Nassiuma’s equation (2000) as summarized by Legaste (2013) was
utilized to determine the total number of sample per school.
The formula is as follows:
Nassiuma’s Formula
n = (N C^2)/C^(2+( -1) e) where n = sample size
N = population size
C = Coefficient of Variation (50%)
e = desired margin of error @ 5%
Proportional allocation formula was used to find the sample of students from each grade level.
Proportional Allocation Formula
S = n1n/n Where S = sub-sample
n1 = sub-population
n = sample size
N = total population

20. Statistical Treatment
To interpret the date effectively, the researcher will employ the following statistical
treatment. The Percentage, Weighted Mean and T-test are the tools use to interpret data.
1. Percentage
This will employ to determine the frequency counts and percentage distribution of
personal related variables of the respondents.
Formula: % =F/N×100
% is the percentage
F is the Frequency
N is the total number of respondents
100 is a constant value

21. 2. Average Weighted Mean
This will be used to determine the assessment of the respondents with
regards to their personal profiles.
Formula: X =Fx/N
X is the weighted mean
F is the frequency
x is the weight of each item
N is the number of cases
3. Standard Deviation
This will be used to determine how spread out the data collected to the
respondents.

22. 3. Correlation
This will be used to determine the relationship of the variable used in this study.
rxy = Pearson r correlation coefficient between x and y
n = number of observations
xi = value of x (for ith observation)
yi = value of y (for ith observation)

24. Instruction: Kindly respond to the following questions regarding your reaction or perception to each
situation. Use the Likert Scale below together with its vertical description and provision to accurately give
your insights on how you agree or disagree with the given statement about the Acceptability of Halal Food.
 Numerical Verbal Description Provision Rating
 5 Strongly Agree Strongly Agree in the given statement.
 4 Agree Agree in the given statement.
 3 Neutral Neutral in the given statement
 2 Disagree Disagree in the given statement
 1 Strongly Disagree Strongly Disagree in the given statement