Islam and MaccaDees?

[Phteven]

Yael, I'm not sure about the relative price. TBH I never pay much attention to the prices of food unless I'm shopping with coins and don't want to be embarrased at the checkout.
The chicken at my local supermarket is halal and about the same price as the ones next door without the sticker. I live across the road from a wholesale butcher so I get pretty good prices compared to my old butcher.

Astrid as far as I know the chicken brands that are halal certified include biaida (that includes the lilydale freerange), redlea, cordina, most of the inghams and lots of the steggles are but they won't guarantee it. The reason is because the slaughter process in their factories is the same for halal and non-halal. It requires a Muslim to oversee it and an inspection to make sure the premises are clean and humane. From an economic point of view it would be silly to exclude yourself from the market (both local and export) when it costs nothing extra to be able to access it.
FWIW if a Muslim were slaughtering in a non-halal abbatior and said Bismillah before each slaughter and cut their throat that meat would probably be halal too.
I think that they don't bother labelling it because the end product from a physical perspective is pretty much the same - it's not the same as having a food additive in it that could cause an allergic reaction or cancer or organic or GM which have ecological implications. They only label for physical ingredients not spiritual charcteristics. Halal labelling is entirely voluntary if an organisation wants to label not halal then that would be ok too.

Also when it comes to labelling there is a 5% loophole. There is unfortunately lots of stuff in our food that isn't labelled.