THE IMPORTANCE OF HALĀL FOOD AWARENESS; A CASE STUDY IN LINXIA, CHINA

Abstract

The global food market is concerned with food safety and its hygiene which is considered a worldwide issue. However, the business in China, concerning halāl integrity or halāl food industry, is significantly less. It happens as most people are unaware of the importance and existence of the halāl food industry. If the awareness is low, their attitude will be the same way as people might have less opinion about it or even zero understanding. Interestingly, although the Muslim population in China is very few as it is not a Muslim majority country, Linxia has a Muslim majority population that practices the Islamic teachings. Linxia is well-known as The Little Mecca. Apprehending their situation resided among non-Muslim environments with the higher influence from surroundings, exploring their attitude and behaviour toward the halāl food industry is thoughtprovoking. Muslims need to have an understanding and knowledge of what halāl is all about when measuring halāl awareness. This paper aims to give an overview of halāl awareness issues in Linxia, so the necessary steps can be taken for the improvement of the halāl industry in Linxia in particular and China in general. The awareness level in this paper is measured by identifying the factors affecting Muslims in Linxia, China, in their intention to purchase halāl products and their buying behaviour. Therefore, this study was constructed to identify the attitude and purchase intention of Muslim Consumers in Linxia toward halāl food products. The theory used to identify the factors is the Theory Plan Behaviour (TPB). The data was collected from 302 Muslim participants, and then it was further analysed using the SPSS software. The result depicted that the participants’ attitude is positively correlated with their purchase intention and buying behaviour of halāl food products, and their purchase intention has a significant and positive impact on buying behaviour of halāl food products.