Investigation of Indonesian Muslims’ dietary situations in Taiwan to explore the Muslim-friendly standards implementable in the non-Muslim society

Abstract

To probe a Muslim-friendly regulation which may be more implementable than the original Halal standards in Taiwan, this study tried to explore Muslims’ bottom line of acceptance for different dietary cultures when they are exposed to a place where Islam is not the main religion. In view of geographic position and population size, Indonesian Muslims are the most important Muslim customers for Taiwanese market, so this study focused on Indonesian Muslims’ dietary situations in Taiwan. A questionnaire survey was conducted and 233 adequate responses were collected from 3 groups of Indonesian Muslims in Taiwan. The results showed that most of the long/medium-period Indonesian Muslim residents prefer preparing their daily foods to taking the foods supplied by their employers or school canteens. General markets are their major shopping places for foods/food raw materials without special taboos. Multiple choices from 19 categories of foods revealed that they are not used to the Western-style foods. Statistical analyses on the acceptability of the 13 non-Halal scenarios indicated that Indonesian Muslims do not expect the foods/restaurants of 100% Halal qualified in Taiwan. As long as “no pork and no alcohol” can be assured by the credible institutes, many Taiwanese foods and restaurants can be well accepted by the Indonesian Muslims.