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Where our data comes from

Explore Halal combines independent UK certification registers with open community datasets, then enriches each listing with ratings and photos. Here is exactly what each source is and how much weight to give it.

Certification types

Every listing is tagged with one of these so you can filter by how it was verified.

  • Halal Monitoring Committee (HMC)

    Certified

    HMC operates a strict monitoring regime and only certifies premises that use hand-slaughtered, non-stunned meat with a continuous audit trail. Listings tagged HMC are drawn from HMC's own published register of certified outlets.

  • Halal Food Authority (HFA)

    Certified

    HFA is one of the UK's largest halal certifiers and permits certain approved stunning methods. Listings tagged HFA come from HFA-certified premises data.

  • Community & self-certified

    Self-certified

    These venues describe themselves as halal but are not verified against an independent UK certifier. They come from open community datasets (see below). Always confirm the certification directly with the venue if this matters to you.

Listing & enrichment sources

The underlying feeds we pull venues and extra detail from.

  • HalalAPI

    Community data

    A community-maintained directory of UK halal venues. Records are imported as self-certified unless they carry a recognised HMC or HFA certification.

  • OpenStreetMap (via the Overpass API)

    Community data

    OpenStreetMap is a free, open, crowd-sourced map of the world. We query venues tagged diet:halal=yes or diet:halal=only through the free Overpass API. These are contributor-submitted tags, not certifications, so they are stored as self-certified. Data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License (ODbL).

  • Google Places API

    Ratings & photos

    We enrich listings with star ratings, review counts, and a venue photo from Google Places. This adds context to a listing but does not itself verify halal status. Ratings and images are © Google.

A note on accuracy

Certification can change and community tags can be out of date. A listing on Explore Halal is a starting point, not a guarantee. For anything you consider important, confirm the current certification directly with the venue before you visit.