If you buy imported products, you will see halal marks from all over the world, and it is fair to wonder whether they carry any weight here. The short answer is that a foreign logo is not automatically valid in Singapore, but a great many are recognised through a formal process, so the picture is more reassuring than it first appears.
MUIS operates a recognition framework for Foreign Halal Certification Bodies. Under an enhanced version introduced in 2025, foreign certifiers are assessed against Singapore's standards, and as of late September 2025 more than a hundred foreign bodies were recognised. Their details sit on an official MUIS portal, and applications are handled digitally rather than by the old email-based method. When a certifier is recognised, products it certifies can be accepted here with far more confidence than an unfamiliar logo would otherwise inspire.
For local food premises, the rule is clean and worth remembering: only MUIS certification makes an establishment halal-certified in Singapore. A restaurant cannot rely on a foreign logo to describe itself as certified here. For imported retail products, the practical move is different. Identify the certifier printed on the pack, then check whether that body appears on the MUIS recognised list. Familiar names such as JAKIM in Malaysia and MUI in Indonesia are widely trusted and are commonly recognised, but confirming rather than assuming is the safer instinct, especially for a product you buy regularly.
There is a sensible reason behind all this rigour. Modern supply chains are long and complicated, and a mark you cannot trace is not much of an assurance. The recognition framework exists so that a logo can be tied back to a body whose standards have actually been assessed, which is what turns a sticker into genuine confidence.
Personal care follows the same logic. Since local certification centres on food, a toothpaste or a skincare product relies on a recognised halal body rather than on MUIS certification directly. The habit for the shopper is unchanged: find out who certified it, confirm that certifier is credible and recognised, and check the certification covers the actual product.
Meraki carries recognised halal certification and keeps that information transparent for exactly this reason. Meraki Halal is a halal certified natural toothpaste made with miswak and black seed oil, SLS free, with no artificial sweeteners or colours. Whether the product in your hand is local or imported, the question is always the same, and it is an answerable one: who stands behind this mark, and can I verify it?