Our Zero Cross-Contamination Promise for Halal Food

What does zero cross-contamination mean for halal food?

It means there is nothing in the kitchen for halal food to be contaminated by. At the Ribs 'n' Kabobs restaurant in Artesia, where every RNK Foods kabob and samosa is made, there is no pork and no alcohol anywhere on site, every piece of meat is 100% Zabiha halal, and the kitchen is verified by HFSAA. That is the promise we make to customers across Southern California, and this post explains what it covers and how you can check it yourself.

RNK Foods is the frozen-food line of the family behind the Ribs 'n' Kabobs restaurant at 18925 Norwalk Blvd, Artesia, CA 90701. The restaurant has been HFSAA-certified since it opened in 2014. The recipes behind the frozen line go back to 1999. Because the frozen packs and the restaurant plates come out of the same kitchen, the standard is the same for both, and so is the promise.

Why is cross-contamination the real question for halal eaters?

Most people who ask "is it halal?" are really asking two things. First, was the meat slaughtered correctly? Second, did it stay halal on the way to the plate? The second question is the one that gets missed. Meat that is Zabiha at the slaughterhouse can still be grilled on the same grate as pork, fried in the same oil, cut on the same board, stored in the same fridge or cooked by a kitchen that uses wine in a sauce. In a shared kitchen, halal is only as good as the weakest point in the chain.

For a definition of the first question, our post on what Zabiha halal is covers the slaughter standard. This post is about the second.

What does our kitchen keep out?

The short answer is everything that would make the question necessary.

• No pork, in any form. Nothing on the breakfast menu, nothing in the pastry, nothing in the storeroom.
• No alcohol on site. None in the sauces, the marinades or the desserts, and no bar.
• No non-Zabiha meat. There is no "halal section" of the walk-in because the whole walk-in is halal. Beef, chicken, lamb and goat all come in under the same Zabiha standard.

This is what we mean by a dedicated kitchen. There is one set of grills, one set of fryers, one set of boards and one set of fridges, and all of it is used for halal food and nothing else. The lava rock grill that cooks the seekh kabobs cooks nothing but halal meat. The fryer that crisps the samosas fries nothing that is not halal.

How do HFSAA standards cover cross-contamination?

HFSAA, the Halal Food Standards Alliance of America, certifies the whole operation, not just the invoice from the meat supplier. In general terms, its standards look at where the meat comes from and how it was slaughtered, how it is stored and handled, what else is prepared on the same equipment, and what ingredients go into sauces, marinades and desserts. The certifier looks at the kitchen itself, so a restaurant cannot pass by buying Zabiha meat and then cooking it next to pork.

For a kitchen like ours, that is straightforward: there is nothing non-halal to separate from. For a shared kitchen, those same standards are exactly what force the hard questions. That is why we point customers to HFSAA rather than asking them to take our word for it, and why we wrote a plain-language guide to our HFSAA certification.

What does this mean for the frozen packs?

Every RNK Foods product sold online, the beef and chicken seekh kabobs and the beef, chicken and spicy potato veggie samosas, is made from scratch in this same kitchen in Artesia. They are not made by a third-party factory and relabelled. The kabobs are hand-mixed, hand-formed and grilled on the same grill as the restaurant's, then frozen. The samosas are hand-folded and flash-frozen straight after folding.

So when a pack arrives at your door in Cerritos, Norwalk or anywhere in Los Angeles County or Orange County, it carries the same promise as a plate at the counter: no pork, no alcohol, 100% Zabiha, HFSAA-verified kitchen. The insulated packaging keeps it frozen on the way, and once it is in your freezer it stays halal, because nothing about freezing or reheating changes that.

What about your freezer at home?

Cross-contamination at home is your side of the promise. If your household keeps non-halal food, keep the RNK Foods packs sealed and on their own shelf, use a clean pan, and do not reuse oil that has fried non-halal food. For most of our customers this is not an issue, but we say it because the kitchen's promise ends at your door.

How can a customer verify the promise?

Do not take any restaurant's word for it, including ours. Here is how to check.

1. Look for the certificate. An HFSAA-certified restaurant displays its certification. Ask to see it at the counter in Artesia.
2. Check with the certifier. HFSAA's own site at hfsaa.org explains its standards.
3. Ask the questions that matter. Is there pork anywhere on site? Is there alcohol in any sauce or dessert? Is every meat Zabiha, or only some? A straight "no, no, every one" is what you want to hear.
4. Walk the menu. Our full menu, from hickory smoked ribs to seekh kabobs, is on one standard. If a menu has halal items next to non-halal ones, ask how the kitchen keeps them apart. Our guide to halal vs regular meat covers the other questions worth asking.
5. Ask who makes the frozen product. For RNK Foods, the answer is the same family, in the same kitchen, with the recipes they have used since 1999. The story page has the background.

Why does a family restaurant care this much?

Because this is the family's own food. The kabobs and samosas in the freezer packs come from recipes the family has used since 1999, well before the restaurant opened in 2014, and the standard in the kitchen on Norwalk Blvd is the standard the family keeps at home. One of the very few halal BBQ houses in Southern California runs this way because the people cooking eat the same food.

Where to find us

The restaurant and pickup counter are at Ribs 'n' Kabobs in Artesia. Directions are on the contact page. The frozen line ships in insulated packaging to California addresses with ZIP codes starting 900 to 935, and the full product list is on the RNK Foods menu. Restaurants, grocery stores and masjids that want the same standard in volume can ask on the wholesale page.