Careful by design.
Halalens exists to answer one anxious question in the aisle — can I eat this?— honestly. That means being clear about what we know, what we don't, and never dressing up a guess as certainty.
The four verdicts
No prohibited or source-ambiguous ingredients — or a recognised halal certification.
Contains something permissible only depending on its source (gelatin, E471, enzymes, unspecified flavours). We never upgrade these to halal.
Contains a clearly prohibited ingredient — pork, added alcohol, carmine (E120), and the like.
Not enough legible ingredient information to judge.
How we keep it accurate
We start from the actual ingredient list — pulled from Open Food Facts, the world's largest open food database, or read directly off your photo — never from the product name alone.
A curated knowledge base of haram and mashbooh (doubtful) ingredients and E-numbers runs first, so the well-established cases never depend on a model's judgement.
A fast, low-cost language model adds nuance and reads difficult labels — but it can never overturn a haram or doubtful finding into halal. When the rule engine and the model disagree, we keep the safer verdict.
Every scanner can report a correction or ask a question. Reports flag a product for human review, so verdicts get more accurate over time — for everyone.
An honest limit
Halalens is a tool, not a religious authority. A verdict reflects the best reading of available ingredient data — it is not a fatwa. Manufacturers change recipes; labels omit sources; scholars differ on some additives. When something matters to you, and especially when a product is doubtful, please verify with the manufacturer or a trusted scholar. And when you spot something wrong — tell us. That's how this gets better.