Are Pringles halal or haram?

Question

I just wanted to confirm whether Pringles and Knorr products are halal or haram, because recently a friend told me that they were haram because in Pringles use e471 so I just want to confirm it that it is halal or haram.

Answer 1

TL;DR: Pringles comes in a range of flavors, some of which are obviously not halal (e.g. Pringles Bacon). Those manufactured in Malaysia are certified halal.

In Pringles The Original, the only questionable ingredient is emulsifier E471 (mono-and diglycerides of fatty acids). If it's labelled as "suitable for vegetarians", it should be halal (as the E471 would be from soy fat), and some canisters with E471 contain this label. (This ingredient is omitted from the Malaysian equivalent.)

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Pringles come in a range of flavours.

• Obviously, Pringles Bacon is not halal.

• Pringles The Original lists the ingredients as:

  Dried potatoes, vegetable oil (contains one or more of the following: corn oil, cottonseed oil, soybean oil, and/or sunflower oil), rice flower, wheat starch, maltodextrin, mono-and diglycerides, salt, dextrose.

  We check the not-obviously-halal ingredients:

  • Maltodextrin is classified as halal at foodchemadditives.com: "As a plant derived ingredients, Maltodextrin is general recognized as halal.".

  • Dextrose is classified as halal at muslimconsumergroup.com: "It is a corn sweetener from corn starch."

  • The complicated ingredient is mono-and diglycerides (of fatty acids), which is E471:

    ... If the fat source is from soy fat then it is Halal. If it is from pork fat then it is Haram. If it is from non zabiha beef then it is not Halal. If a claim appeared on food package "Suitable for Vegetarian" containing E-Number 471 then it means the E Number 471 is from soy fat. The food product is Halal if all other ingredients are Halal

  If we go by this, then Pringles The Original would be halal, as even with the emulsifier, it's classed as vegan:

  

Pringles.com writes:

Pringles manufactured in Malaysia is Halal. Pringles Malaysia is fully Halal-compliant to halal standards and regulations stipulated by Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia.

There's photos of halal certified Pringles online:

However, the Malaysian site changes the name to Pringles Potato Crisps Original, and the list of ingredients is different from the US version:

kentang kering, minyak sayuran (olein sawit), kanji gandum, tepung beras, maltodekstrin, garam, dekstrosa.

which is

dried potatoes, vegetable oil (palm oil), wheat starch, rice flour, maltodextrin, salt, dextrose.

So there's no E471. This is probably to avoid controversy. However, palm oil has some halal-food-unrelated problems (see Greenpeace.org).

Answer 2

The ingredients of Pringles are:

about 42% potato content, the remainder being wheat starch and flours (potato, corn, and rice) mixed with vegetable oils, an emulsifier, salt, and seasoning.

Other ingredients can include sweeteners like maltodextrin and dextrose, monosodium glutamate (MSG), disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, sodium caseinate, modified food starch, monoglyceride and diglyceride, autolyzed yeast extract, natural and artificial flavors, malted barley flour, wheat bran, dried black beans, sour cream, cheddar cheese, etc.

None of those are haram. You should be ok eating them.

Answer 3

Yes, they are halal if a product says UD, KD, U, or just K on the package. That means it is kosher which is the same as halal.