Auntie Anne’s ‘Pretzel Dog’ is now officially known as ‘Pretzel Sausage’

It’s official: there will be no more ‘Pretzel Dogs’ at Auntie Anne’s.

The pretzel chain on Monday confirmed that they had changed the name of the food item to ‘Pretzel Sausage’, as per Malaysian Islamic Development Department’s (Jakim) suggestion.

Farhatul Kamilah Mohamed Sazali, an executive in the company, told Malay Mail Online that the name was changed to meet the requirements set by the country’s Halal authorities.

If they refused to do so, Auntie Anne’s will reportedly be denied a Halal certificate.

“We changed already to ‘pretzel sausage’ to comply with Malaysia’s halal certification requirements,” Farhatul was quoted by the news portal as saying.

Last month, an Auntie Anne’s executive disclosed that Jakim had denied the chain’s application for Halal certification, reportedly due to the word “pretzel dog” in its menu.

Jakim’s Halal Division director Sirajuddin Suhaimee was quoted by Channel News Asia as saying that the use of the name ‘pretzel dog’ is a concern because the word ‘dog’ refers to an animal.

According to the executive, Jakim had wanted the chain to change the name of the food item to “pretzel sausage”.