What’s the difference between ‘Halal’ and ‘Strictly for Halal’? — Tray return stations confuse Singaporeans

SINGAPORE: A netizen took to social media to post a photo of two tray return stations placed side by side. One carried a sign that said “Halal,” while the other said “Strictly for Halal.”

“Not complaining. But just thinking, what is the difference?” wrote Mr Stephen Lim on the COMPLAINT SINGAPORE Facebook page on Sunday (Sept 8).

The post has since gone viral, receiving many reactions, comments, and shares from other netizens. Many found the situation humorous and poked fun at the two trays.

“Left side is not so strict,” wrote one commenter. “The one strictly for halal, if u put in non-halal, it will zap u with electricity,” another joked. “Left side for Halal… Right side for Halaler,” one chimed in.

Another suggested that the halal rack was for food items with no pork and lard, while the other was only for halal-certified meals.

Elsewhere, tray return racks are usually labelled with “Halal” and “Non-halal” signs, which explains why the post author was so confused by what he saw, though where exactly the tray return racks were was not specified.

Others admitted they were just as confused as the post author.

Some, however, endeavoured to explain the situation. One hazarded the guess that one of the tray return racks is newer than the other and that the older one is yet to be updated.

He added that it’s possible that the signs had been made by different contractors or printed by the boss or owners themselves.

According to one commenter, the signs are probably from the Kopitiam at Hillion Mall in Bukit Panjang, as the eatery has a number of halal stalls.

“My guess is the foodcourt / kopitiam boss has several of these racks from his other outlets. Likely that he recycled them to this shop as the halal stalls have more dishes,” another wrote.

This is not the first time netizens have discussed halal and non-halal tray return stations.

Last year, a man complained on social media that “something is wrong somewhere” when a tray return station had separate compartments for halal and non-halal trays and cutlery, but cleaners dumped them in the same container anyway.

“What is the whole point of segregating the return tray if, at the collection point, the cleaner just dumps everything into one tub?

Also, as stated clearly, the return point is for halal, but the plates returned were mixed. The good old days, cleaning aunties and uncle will push 1 trolley and have 2 tub to segregate,” wrote a Facebook on May 21, 2023. /TISG

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