Halal Food Gets Attention with Ramadan Promos

The Christmas season is unavoidable in our consumption-driven society: grocery stores remind us incessantly from the day after Halloween that the holiday season is in full swing, with iced cookies shaped like fir trees, snowflakes and Santa Claus, generally accompanied by a modest display of menorahs and dreidels. Whole Foods decided to spread the love this July with a halal-food promotion for Ramadan, a month-long Muslim holiday in which participants fast during daylight hours, abstaining from eating, drinking, smoking and sex. Tied to the benchmarking promotion was the introduction of a new line of halal frozen foods from Saffron Road. (See our Meet the Producer with Adnan Durrani.)

What stirred controversy was the leaking of an email from one regional district of the specialty supermarket, instructing its Whole Foods locations to promote only halal offerings and not Ramadan. This sparked an uproar when news outlets interpreted the move as anti-Muslim and fear-mongering. Whole Foods quickly responded through the company’s Twitter page, explaining in a series of tweets that headquarters never sent such a message. “We have 12 different operating regions and unfortunately, one region reacted by sending out directions to promote halal and …” read one tweet, followed by, “… not #Ramadan specifically after some negative online comments.” For the most thorough report on the saga, check out The Atlantic’s coverage. —Eva Meszaros

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