After twenty years of selling ham and pork meatball sandwiches, all Subway outlets across the entire island (except one at Wisteria Mall) are officially halal-certified.
The news comes months after the fast-food chain showed interest in going Muslim-friendly, experimenting at first by stopping the sale of pork products in 60 of its over 130 stores back in February. The move sparked both support and outcry; the former from Muslim consumers tired of heading to Malaysia for halal subs, and the latter from longtime fans of the Subway’s BLTs™ and Meatball Marinaras™.
It was only in March that Subway Singapore confirmed that it initiated a Halal certification process with the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS). All of its restaurants stopped serving pork altogether and boy, did some people go apeshit.
As of today, there’s no turning back. Subway Singapore confirmed that all of its offerings are properly halal-certified, ensuring a peace of mind for Muslim patrons with dietary restrictions. All previous pork products have been substituted with chicken or beef to meet the dietary needs of more customers in Singapore.
“As one of the leading quick-service restaurants in Singapore, it is important that we stay relevant to our consumers and empower them with the choice of allowing more to create their favourite sandwiches with the freshest Subway ingredients,” said Subway’s Southeast Asia country director Samad Bin Mohd Shariff.
“We are very pleased to receive our halal certification from MUIS today and look forward to broadening our offerings and appeal to the varied preferences of a diverse country”.
The press release confirmed that the decision was driven by the growing Muslim travel market, with Subway citing a Mastercard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index 2017 report that Singapore is one of the top 10 destinations in Asia. With Muslims making up about 40 percent of the population in Southeast Asia and the Muslim travel market estimated to grow to US$220 billion in 2020, it’s a huge segment of customers that Subway can no longer ignore.
“The Subway customer profile is quite broad, and includes locals, tourists from the region and beyond — some of whom follow Muslim principles when making food purchases,” continued Samad. “Guests in our restaurants in Singapore can be assured that we serve top quality and halal-compliant products”.
As of today, Muslims are able to enjoy dining at Subway outlets islandwide. With the exception of a branch in Wisteria Mall, which is still in the process of applying for a halal certification.
No doubt, Subway Singapore’s official halal status will only serve to annoy a portion of its customers even more. Just last week, folks are still clamoring for the chain to bring back pork into their menu.
But what Subway loses in old regulars, they gain in new ones who didn’t have access to their subs here for the past 20 or so years. Furthermore, the chain still welcomes non-Muslim folks to patronage their outlets, the difference being that now they can dine in with the company of their Muslim friends, albeit without salami.
