How Etqa works

What Etqa is

Etqa is a mobile app for iPhone and Android, published by ETQA LLC. It reads the ingredient list of a packaged food and reports two things: a halal classification, and a set of food-quality readings.

Data sources

Open Food Facts

An open, collaborative database of food products. Its data is published under the Open Database License (ODbL). openfoodfacts.org

USDA FoodData Central

The food and nutrient database of the US Department of Agriculture. fdc.nal.usda.gov

Etqa research

The classification of each ingredient and the written reason for it are kept in Etqa’s own database. Products that are missing can be added by users with the ingredient scanner. As the Terms of Service state, the app may use third-party AI services to analyse and classify ingredients; those results are information, not religious rulings.

USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service

Recall notices for meat, poultry and egg products. fsis.usda.gov/recalls

US Food and Drug Administration

Recall notices for other foods, from FDA’s food enforcement reports. open.fda.gov

How ingredients are classified

Every ingredient name in the database carries one of three labels.

Halal

Permissible under Islamic law.

Mashbooh

Doubtful: verify first. The ingredient can be halal or haram depending on its source or on how it was made, and an ingredient list does not say which.

Haram

Forbidden to consume. Lard, which is pork fat, is an example.

As of 2 October 2026 the database holds 19,616 ingredient names: 13,897 halal, 4,988 mashbooh and 731 haram. 2,417 names carry an E-number.

The reasons written in the database show three common causes of a mashbooh label:

• The source can be animal, plant or microbial. Example: E471, mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids.
• Alcohol is used as a solvent or carrier. Example: vanilla extract.
• Scholars differ. Example: E120, cochineal, a colour made from insects.

In the app, each ingredient opens to a short written reason, its E-number where it has one, and what it does in food.

How a product gets its verdict

1. The barcode is looked up and the product’s ingredient list is read from its record.
2. Each ingredient is matched against the database.
3. The product takes the classification of its strictest ingredient. One haram ingredient makes the product haram. Otherwise one mashbooh ingredient makes it mashbooh. If every ingredient is halal, the product is halal.

The result screen shows the counts, for example “20 halal · 2 doubtful · 0 haram”, and names the ingredients that decided the verdict. Each verdict has a “Report this verdict” link.

If a barcode is not found, the ingredient scanner reads the ingredient text on the pack with the camera, and single ingredients can be looked up by name.

Seven concepts

The Islamic Dietary Guide in the app explains the terms it uses.

Halal حلال

Lawful and permitted by Islamic law.

Haram حرام

Strictly forbidden by Islamic law.

Mashbooh

Questionable: it requires further investigation.

Najs

Ritually impure.

Istihalah

Transformation: a substance that changes its nature may change its ruling.

Rukhsah

Dispensation: permitted under necessity or hardship.

Azimah

Strict ruling: the default position when no dispensation applies.

The Codex Alimentarius guidelines on the term “halal” define halal food as food permitted under Islamic law, and accept that Islamic schools of thought may differ in their interpretation (Codex Alimentarius, CAC/GL 24-1997).

The reasons quoted from the database on the E-number pages also use these words:

Zabiha

Slaughtered according to Islamic law.

Where scholars differ

The dietary profile in the app lists six questions on which scholars differ, and lets you record whether you avoid or allow each one:

• Animal rennet: cheese enzyme from non-halal slaughter
• Vanilla extract: flavour carried in alcohol, in trace amounts
• Gelatine after istihalah: transformed from non-halal collagen
• Carmine (E120): red colour made from cochineal insects
• Non-fish seafood: shrimp, crab, squid
• Kosher-slaughtered meat: accepted as halal by some scholars

You can also record how you treat doubtful ingredients: strict (you avoid them) or balanced (you check the source before deciding). These choices are kept for your reference. Verdicts do not change with them.

Nutri-Score, NOVA and nutrition

These readings describe nutrition and processing. They are independent of the halal classification.

Nutri-Score

Nutri-Score was created by Santé publique France, the French public health agency, at the request of the French Ministry of Health. It gives a food one overall grade from A to E per 100 g or 100 ml, weighing nutrients and foods to encourage (fibre, protein, fruits, vegetables, legumes) against nutrients to limit (calories, saturated fat, sugars, salt and non-nutritive sweeteners). Producers display it on a voluntary basis. Seven countries officially recommend Nutri-Score: France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. (Source: Santé publique France.)

NOVA

NOVA sorts foods into four groups by the extent and purpose of processing: unprocessed or minimally processed foods, processed culinary ingredients, processed foods and ultra-processed foods. It was developed by researchers at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. (Source: FAO, 2019.)

FDA and USDA described NOVA in July 2025 as the most common classification of foods by processing, while noting that there is no single, universally accepted definition of ultra-processed foods. (Source: Federal Register, 25 July 2025.)

Additives

The result screen shows how many additives are on the ingredient list. An E number is a number used in the European Union to identify permitted food additives. It means the additive has passed safety tests and has been approved for use. (Source: European Food Safety Authority.)

Low, medium or high

Sugars, saturated fat, total fat and sodium are rated low, medium or high per 100 g. The full nutrition panel is shown underneath.

Ask Etqa AI

Ask Etqa AI is the chat assistant in the app. It gives three kinds of answer.

Ingredient

The classification, the E-number and category, a summary and any safety concern.

Safety

A safety level, an explanation and a note on the regulatory status.

Schools of law

An AI summary of the Hanafi, Shafi’i, Maliki, Hanbali and Ja’fari positions on the question.

Questions outside food and Islamic dietary rules are turned down. Every answer carries the note “AI-generated answer. It can be wrong and is not a religious ruling (fatwa)” and a “Report this answer” link. Where scholars differ, or when the answer matters to you, ask a scholar you trust.

Recalls

The app lists recent recall notices from the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service and from the US Food and Drug Administration, with the class of each recall. In the United States, FSIS regulates meat, poultry and egg products, and FDA regulates all other food products.

FSIS defines a Class I recall as a health hazard situation with a reasonable probability that using the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death; Class II as one with a remote probability of adverse health consequences; and Class III as one where using the product will not cause adverse health consequences, or the risk is negligible. (Source: USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service.)

Limits

• An ingredient list does not show everything. Slaughter, production lines and cross-contamination can affect whether a product is halal, and none of them appears on a label.
• Some things may legally be left off a label. EU law does not require the ingredient list to include processing aids, carriers used in strictly necessary quantities, or additives carried over from an ingredient that serve no function in the finished product. Allergens must still be declared. (Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011.) US rules exempt incidental additives, including processing aids, from the ingredient list when they are present at insignificant levels and have no technical or functional effect in the finished food. (21 CFR 101.100.)
• “Natural flavor” does not name its source. US labelling rules define “natural flavor” to include flavouring constituents derived from plant materials and also from meat, seafood, poultry, eggs and dairy products, and allow a label to declare them simply as “natural flavor” without naming the source; protein hydrolysates are an exception and must be declared by their specific name. (21 CFR 101.22.)
• Product records can be out of date. Recipes change, and an open database can lag behind the pack in your hand. The label on the product is the reference.
• Scholars differ. A mashbooh label marks a question, not an answer. For a definitive answer, ask a scholar or a certifier you trust.
• Allergens are not checked. The avoid list and diet preferences in the profile are reminders. Scans do not check products against them.
• AI answers can be wrong. The answers of Ask Etqa AI are written by AI, and the app may use AI services to analyse ingredients. Treat those results as a starting point, not as a ruling.
• The database can be wrong. Use “Report this verdict” in the app, or write to support@etqaa.org.

This website’s data

E-number pages

The E-number pages cover 20 common additives. They are generated from the same database as the app, and a code gets a page only when its names in the database match the name of that code in the Open Food Facts additives taxonomy and its written reason agrees with its label. The app covers all 406 codes in the database.

The classification, the reason, the origin and the food uses on each page are quoted from the Etqa database as of 2 October 2026. Statements in the database about safety, legal status or scholarly consensus are left out unless they are backed by a source on the statistics page. The name of each additive, its other names and its forms come from the Open Food Facts additives taxonomy.

Before publication the entries were read by an independent reviewer for factual errors. Where the origin or a food use was wrong it was left off the page, and pages whose reason contained a factual error were held back.

Statistics

Every line on the statistics page comes from the source named next to it: a statistical agency, a regulator, a law, an international body, a peer-reviewed study, a research organisation or an industry association. Each one was read at its source, or in another published copy of the same document, on 2 October 2026. Figures that Etqa counted itself from official data are marked “counted by Etqa”.

Corrections

If you find an error on this site or in the app, write to support@etqaa.org.

Nutri-Score is a registered trademark of Santé publique France. Etqa is not affiliated with Santé publique France, Open Food Facts, the US Department of Agriculture or the US Food and Drug Administration.