Halaal Food & Drinks

Wine vinegar

Q: I would like to ask you about the Brandywine vinegar as I am studying in Germany and almost every other has this Branntweinessig and they use it as a cheap preservative for yogurt, ketchup, mayonnaise, even some milk drinks also have this. So is it permissible to use this or not as due to language barriers I could only rely on translation which literally means wine vinegar.

Gelatine

Q: What is the Shariah ruling on gelatine? It eludes logical comprehension that many halaal certifying bodies rule as halaal gelatine derived from non-halaal animals in their products. In the event that products containing gelatine derived from non-halaal animals are not approved by halaal certifying bodies whose views defer, then manufacturers simply have their products certified by any one of the other halaal certifying bodies who do grant halaal status to products containing gelatine derived from non-halaal animals. And manufacturers laugh all the way to the bank! But what actually is the Shariah ruling? The halaal certifying bodies concerned aver that the gelatine from non-halaal animals undergoes a metamorphosis when processed and becomes halaal just as soap containing processed ingredients from non-halaal animals is deemed halaal.