Question
Do you know how McDonald, Subway and Tim hortons make their chicken? And is it ok to eat their chicken?
Answer
Bismillahi ta’ala,
I do not know of a single McDonald, Subway or Tim Hortons in Canada that serves halal chicken. If you come across any such claim, please do let me know about it.
McDonald’s QnA website answers to a questioner from Mississauga,
“Right now, our restaurant operations do not currently allow us to separate Halal meat from our regular McDonald’s items. We also cannot ensure that any other products in our restaurants meet the standard required to achieve Halal designations. While we have no plans at this time to offer Halal foods, we haven’t ruled it out.” [i]
Subway website does not indicate any mention of halal items being served at their stores. They do however mention that they serve halal mean in their Saudi Arabian branches.[ii]
Similarly I had not heard of any outlet of Tim Hortons providing halal menu in Canada as well. In any case, I have severe doubts about Tim Hortons sandwich and bagel handling. I fear a lot of contamination in their process.
In fact I perceive this problem every company you have mentioned. I have personally witnessed cross contamination in Tim Hortons, hence I caution everyone from eating their sandwiches or bagels. Subway has a maximum chance of cross contamination even if the employee uses a fresh knife and gloves for you. While serving a haram sandwich, the server puts the same glove into multiple vegitables and condements, making all of them impure. Thereafter, in your turn even if he changes the glove, it does not change the status of the already contaminated food.
I would not allow anyone to eat sanswiches etc. from such outlets. One may however take single item wherein the contamination is inconceivable. For example taking a whole bagal, un sliced and untoasted , or a dougnut (which are kept separate from other baked goods), timbits, coffee etc. would be fine.
Wallahu A’lam,
Wassalamu `alaykum,
Mufti Faisal al-Mahmudi
[i] http://yourquestions.mcdonalds.ca/questions/7018
[ii] http://www.subway.com/subwayroot/about_us/PR_Docs/SandwichDay.pdf