A Systematic Literature Review: Halal Food Application in Local Malaysia

A Systematic Literature Review: Halal Food Application in Local Malaysia

Noorrezam Yusop¹, Massila Kamalrudin¹, Nor Aiza Moketar¹, Nuridawati Mustafa¹, Salam Fraihat²

¹Software Engineering Department

¹Fakulti Teknologi Maklumat dan Komunikasi,Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka
Durian Tunggal, Malaysia

²Information Technology Department College of Engineering & ITAjman UniversityUnited Arab Emirate

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2025.9020034

Received: 16 January 2025; Accepted: 28 January 2025; Published: 28 February 2025

ABSTRACT

The increasing demand for Halal products, particularly in Malaysia, underscores the importance of ensuring compliance with Islamic principles to cater to both local and international Muslim consumers. This study explores the challenges faced by Halal small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia, focusing on language barriers and the integration of Arabic-Malay translations in Halal food applications. A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted to identify key issues, such as the lack of awareness, limited availability of Halal-certified products, and the complexity of local language adaptation. Findings reveal that the Halal logo, certificates, and misunderstanding of Halal practices are significant obstacles. Methodologies, including models and frameworks, are evaluated for their effectiveness in overcoming these challenges. The study emphasizes the necessity of robust language translation frameworks to enhance user experience and trust. Recommendations include adopting comprehensive strategies to improve translation accuracy, usability, and inclusivity in Halal applications to support global Muslim communities.

Keywords—halal food, Arabic translation, local Malaysia, SLR, SME

INTRODUCTION

Halal products is most crucial for those who strictly keep eating halal meals and have an obligation to them to eat halal meals. Special recognition of halal meals is important so that Muslims are not worried about halal meal status. In other scenarios, the availability of halal food items, drinks, transport services, and places of prayer meet Muslim tourists’ needs [1].

Furthermore, the halal supply chain is a network of supply that gives special attention and endorsement to the products and services to ensure halal integrity basically in Malaysia, driven by Halal small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), is experiencing significant growth. However, like any other business, Halal SME owners encounter several obstacles, such as language barriers. Local language translation is vital to enhance the usability of websites, especially Halal websites. Foreigners order food through websites or smartphone applications. It may be problematic to use the Malay language of mobile food delivery services because the data they supply is typically condensed. If any service platform wants to attract more customers, “convenience” is by far the most crucial factor. If a user has difficulty using a mobile app, they are used less frequently.

Therefore, the paper is organized as follows: Section II describes the background of the study; followed by Section III presents the Methodology to conduct this research; then Section IV provides the threats and validity; Section V presents the overall findings and provides a discussion of this study and lastly, Section VI of this paper ends with a conclusion and recommendations of future work.

RESEARCH BACKGROUND

Halal

The word “halal” is derived from Arabic as well as relates to the religious beliefs of Islam together with all types of products and services that are offered to Muslims. Halal is defined as fundamental sharia that emphasises the qualities of superior qualifications [2].

Halal Certification

Halal certification in Malaysia plays a critical role in ensuring that products and services comply with Islamic law and meet the expectations of Muslim consumers. The certification covers food, beverages, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, logistics, and other products or services involved in the supply chain. Malaysian consumers, on the other hand, have equipped themselves with Halal verification apps to scour the market for products and services [3]. If SME owners do not apply for Halal certification, consumers will assume that their product is not Islamic and refuse to buy it.

Local language Translation

Localization is the process of adapting a product to the linguistic and cultural norms of users in different target markets. Local language translation is crucial to increase user friendliness and motivate users to use the software created especially for the Halal website. Many foreign residents of South Korea face a range of challenges daily, such as cultural differences and communication barriers. This also applies to utilizing mobile applications to order food. Many foreigners find it challenging to use food delivery programs for a variety of reasons [4]. Therefore, local language translation is necessary for software and mobile applications to enhance user accessibility and reach in linguistically varied environments. Translation into the original language is crucial for several reasons.

However, translating some concepts or phrases might be difficult since language contexts change. It is crucial to adapt to the target language while preserving the intended meaning. Different languages may have various text lengths, which can impact the user interface (UI) design. It can be difficult to modify the layout to accept translated text without degrading the user experience. The literature review survey for this study is shown in the following section.

METHODOLOGY

We followed the first recommendations given by Kitchenhamn [5] when conducting the SLR by employing a qualitative research methodology. The following phases comprise this systematic literature review: (1) planning the review, which entails determining the factors and challenges from the research questions, creating and validating the review protocol; (2) conducting the review, which entails finding relevant studies and studies of primary data extraction and quality assessments, creating a quality assessment checklist, and developing a data extraction strategy; and (3) reporting the review, which entails presenting the quality assessment results. Figure I shows the outline of the SLR method.

Fig 1 – Conducting SLR

Planning

During the planning phase, the primary objectives were to select the study topics and to design and validate the review methodology. To address the research questions effectively, a specific goal was established. This was followed by outlining the core review procedures and creating and validating protocols to ensure there is no bias or overlap between the subject matter and the evaluation process. The details of each aspect are presented as follows:

Research Questions (RQs)

The research questions (RQs) are designed to be specific, ensuring a clear focus for the review. We begin by incorporating Arabic and Malay translations to address issues and challenges related to halal food. The topics under investigation are structured using the Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes, and Context (PICOC) framework, as outlined in Table I.

Summary of PICOC

To achieve these two objectives, two research questions (more precisely, RQ1) were developed during this stage of the SLR. What is the Halal Product Challenge in Malaysia?  The initial goal is to determine which Arabic-Malay halal commodities apply to Malaysia. approaches for incorporating Arabic-Malay translation of Halal Products in Malaysia is the second question. The second goal is to look into the drawbacks and restrictions of the strategies and plans being used in Malaysia to translate halal products from Arabic to Malay. Table II provides an illustration of this concept together with the research question (RQ), research objectives (RO), and supporting information.

Research Questions

Search String

Review protocol formulation and validation

A review protocol outlines the procedures to be followed for completing a systematic review, ensuring adherence to predefined criteria to eliminate researcher bias. This review process is divided into four key sections: 1) source selection, 2) study selection methodology, 3) quality assessment checklist, and 4) data extraction strategy. The following sub-section provides a detailed explanation of each component’s development.

Source selection:

To obtain

In these respects, this research believes that there is data for objectives 1 and 2, OR and AND filtering was used in the document searches of IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, Springer, Scopus, ACM Digital Library, and Google Scholar. Such searches focus on the problems, people, and components covered in Objective 1, but another kind of search focuses on the Method, Technique, and Approaches employing Combination type searching, which is supplied in Objective 2’s Arabic-Malay translation application for Halal products in Malaysia.

Study selection procedure:

The key searches in these investigations were first calculated as research questions using the RQ, as shown in Table III. Second, we look at the title or removal of documents that don’t match our search parameters. Thirdly, Boolean operators like AND, OR, and NOT were used to connect the search string’s results during source selection. Fourth, the reference is found, and the appropriate research is looked up in the descriptions and keywords of the articles that follow. Then, the remaining research was distilled using Table V’s inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Quality assessment (QA) checklist:

We made use of the primary study’s information extraction form. Not every question on the data extraction forms was fully addressed by several major research projects. We entered the pertinent data from the initial inquiry to a data-extracting form.  The QA was then applied to all primary studies., i.e. QA, according to the type of study, QA 1) Are the review’s inclusion and exclusion criteria defined and appropriate? QA 2) Is it feasible that the literature search turned up every relevant study? QA 3) Did the reviewers assess the research’s quality or validity, and QA? 4) Were the key facts or research appropriately represented?

Data extraction (DE) strategy:

The investigation will next be conducted using primary research and pertinent sources. The methods used in primary research for quality control and data elicitation are shown in Table VI. The Kitchenham principles were widely applied in the creation of this SLR report. Each phase is covered in detail in the section that follows.

Selection Process

Inclusion and Exclusion

Data Extraction

Conducting Review

In this SLR, the second phase is built upon the completion and approval of the first phase. Considering the subject of the investigation, relevant main studies are chosen. The original research data is then used to finish data extraction and quality assessment. Both parts are discussed thoroughly in these subsections.

Identifying Relevant Studies and  Primary Studies

The article titles were then carefully scrutinized to weed out any studies that didn’t properly answer the research question. The articles which weren’t relevant were subsequently eliminated using the abstract, keywords, and conclusion. There were still 79 research after the application of these two strategies. 32 of the 79 papers that met the inclusion/exclusion criteria were chosen to be the main studies for this systematic literature review. To locate other primary studies related to the research question, the reference lists of the 24 primary research that were selected were also searched using the same selection techniques.

Data Extraction and Quality Assessment

We obtained data from primary research by using the data extraction form. Not every query on the data extraction form was addressed by a significant number of research. The vital information from the primary study was gathered using the data extraction form. After that, every primary investigation received a set of QA questions according to the type of study. We answered the questions on the level of assessment with a yes or no. Using a binary scale was our decision because we were unable to rate the research’s quality.

Reporting Review

The answers to the two research questions listed in Table II were derived from the information gathered from the original investigations. Our SLR report was created precisely as per Kitchenham’s instructions. A review of the existing research serves as the foundation for our SLR evidence synthesis. Along with answering the study questions, we also examined the important articles. The total number of QA investigations finished with SLR’s level layer is shown in Table VII. Three of the 79 studies that the researchers eliminated were duplicates. The twenty-six publications selected for the evidence synthesis came from a quality assessment of thirty-two studies; the remaining six studies were rejected.

RESULT

Threat of Validity

These sections illustrate the threat to the validity of the study and emphasize its strengths and limitations, which researchers must evaluate to support the systematic literature review (SLR). These studies include those by Kitchenham and Charters [5], Wohlin et al. [6], and Petersen et al. [7]. Construction, internal, external, and conclusion validity are among the threats to validity identified by Brereton et al. [8] and further confirmed in our study using similar procedures. To ensure the validity of our study, the first step involved inspecting the articles and evaluating their quality, as outlined by Kitchenham et al. [5]. This process included examining inclusion and exclusion criteria similar to those highlighted by Petersen et al. [7]. Internal validity was ensured by employing both automated and human search techniques to impartially identify publications significantly linked to the areas of interest. To reduce external validity threats, the third phase involved selecting studies published between 2018 and 2024, as suggested by Kitchenham et al. [5], to ensure that the conclusions could be generalized. Lastly, the study’s methodology and procedures, aligning with the updated guidelines by Petersen et al. [7], were utilized to evaluate the validity of the conclusions and their consistency with existing literature.

FINDING AND DISCUSSION

This section contains a detailed discussion along with a summary of the research findings. The outcome presents an overview of the primary findings from the research we performed, which was conducted through SLR with a focus on two RQs. We are currently discussing how to interpret the implications of our findings to the results. The next subsection presents and clarifies the research’s conclusions as well as related discussions.

Findings

We compared the eight accessible articles on halal food application in local Malaysia in terms of challenges and methodology. We present the contrast based on methodology, strategy, approach, and halal food application in local Malaysia in connection to the two RQs. We studied and showed the work of these two RQs within the parameters of the study questions mentioned above. All RQ results are detailed in greater detail below.

RQ1: What are the recent challenges/factors of Halal food application in local Malaysia?

The comparison analysis of challenges of halal food application in Malaysia is shown in Table VIII below. The halal logo is the biggest challenge contributing to the highest number of halal foods in which seven studies investigated it. Next, awareness and knowledge are the most crucial and considered second challenges that contribute to six studies of each factor of halal food studies. Next, halal certificates are the third important factor of this study, which accounts for five studies related to halal certificates. The Arabic language contributed to four studies. Lack of misunderstanding of halal practices, and availability limited contribute to three studies. Finally, the lowest number of factors namely, lack of guidance and promotion, lack of collaboration, financial management, and internal and external management contribute to one study.

RQ2: What are the available Approaches Models, or Methods used to apply Halal Food application in local Malaysia for foreign?

Research on the challenges needs to be conducted earlier compared to later to come up with an appropriate halal food application. This application requires many components, some of which are associated with the characteristics of halal food applications. The comparison features according to methodology, approach, and technique are shown in Table IX. As the information in Table IX demonstrates, the model component is the largest contribution researchers were making encompassing nine out of fourteen studies. Frameworks are the second most reported aspect, highlighted in three contributions, while methods are mentioned in only one. Interestingly, no studies explicitly reference approaches or tools, indicating a potential gap or underreporting in these areas. Therefore, more resources—such as a strategy and framework—are needed to promote the efficacy and usefulness of halal food applications, especially from the eastern Arab countries to buy halal food online.

It was evident from comparing the data in Tables VIII and IX that the methodology model posed more challenges and were therefore more significant in this study. However, it also found that the framework was inadequate in light of the challenges they faced during the study with three studies.

Discussion

We analysed and contrasted 26 research based on SLR results, taking into account the problems in RQ1 and the models, methodologies, approaches, and frameworks in RQ2.

We observed that similar priority topics were examined in the majority of the studies such as Tables VIII and IX show the results of our investigation, which indicate that different models are employed in the current research to support the Halal food application for Arabic. The analysis indicates that the more critical is discovered that the halal food of logo is a serious issue that leads them less confident in eating halal food of international Muslims but it could trust them in interpreting the local language to the Arabic language study for tool application but lacks an approach and language translation of halal food in the local Malaysian language. This ensures that international Muslims enjoy halal food without any doubt or inquiries. In terms of methodology, it is crucial to develop the approach where studies found that lack of framework resulted in translating Arabic Malay slightly low that reflect to halal food applications. For the implementation application, it is necessary to translate Arabic-Malay into a halal food application. On the other hand, a critical framework and method need to be identified and investigated early and clearly for this study. However, the tools to apply this study are lacking.

Comparison Challenges of Halal Foods/Products

Comparison Methodology

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

Translation of Arabic to Malay is essential to make sure that foreign people from around east world are free to eat halal food by purchasing halal via online. Eliciting and deriving the characteristics of Halal food information requirements in Malaysia shall be investigated and thoroughly studied. As a result of this study, the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) technique is constructed for Halal food in terms of challenges and methodology in local Malaysia including applications and research factors. We presented the findings and analyses of many research that demonstrated that the development of Halal food application in the field of language translation especially in Arabic-Malay or other languages is very limited. The strengths and disadvantages provide insight into the limitations of current tools. We summarize that present Halal food application research in local Malaysia is infancy and requires further study and investigation to produce the perception of foreign customers to purchase halal food products.

In the future, we intend to create an approach and tool that can be utilised by customers to have experience in purchasing halal food products in local Malaysia.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We would like thanks to Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) and Ajman University for the grant number: URMG-AJMAN/2024/FTMK/A00070 as well as Fakulti Teknologi Maklumat dan Komunikasi (FTMK) for their supports.

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