[girlsround]

Assalamualaikum,

I wanted to know if any of you guys knew if Cinnabon was halal/haram? Someone told me it was haram, but I couldn't find anything on it.... does anyone know?

Salam, if you are in north america, here's a reply to an email that I sent:

Subject: alcohol in Cinnabons
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2008 10:08:10 -0500
From: ...
To: ...

Hello ...,

I apologize for not getting back to you sooner as I was out of the country on vacation all last week.

The small amount of alcohol contained in the Cinnabon is from 2 sources: the flavorings in the frosting (vanilla and lemon extract) and naturally occurring from the yeast fermentation.

The types of alcohol in the extracts are Propylene glycol and benzyl alcohol.

The type of alcohol as a result of the yeast fermentation is ethyl alcohol – which evaporates in the baking process.

...., please send me your address and I will be glad to send you some coupons as I was not able to respond back to you immediately.

Sincerely,

Brenda McGranahan

Focus Brands- Cinnabon R & D

And in case your're wondering if it's stll halal, yes. Here's the fatwa regarding alcohol in foods:


From: ...
To: daruliftaa@hotmail.com
Subject:
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2008 23:03:15 +0000


Alcohol in Flavourings



Most food products nowadays contain some type of flavouring - natural, artificial, or a combination of both. Many of these flavourings contain alcohol, which is used as a carrier or solvent for the flavouring. The actual amount of alcohol in the finished food product may vary, but it is usually around 1% or less, as the alcohol evaporates during the production process. Items such as drinks and ice creams can contain a bit more, since no evaporation takes place. Such a small amount of alcohol is not required to be declared on the ingredients declaration on the packaging of the product.


The Foodguide follows the opinion of major contemporary Hanafi scholars including the venerable Mufti Yusuf Sacha of the UK (highly acclaimed foods expert) and Mufti Ashraf Usmani of Pakistan. The fatwa in our times is that synthetic alcohols (and all alcohol not sourced from dates and grapes) in foods and otherwise is pure (tahir), and permitted to use and consume on the conditions that:

(a) it is not used as an intoxicant;
(b) it is not used as intoxicants as used (i.e. for alcoholic consumption, even a little);
(c) it is not used in an amount that intoxicates;
(d) it is not used in vain (lahw).
Courtesy: Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

This is the view propounded by the Foodguide service and rest assured that it is of sound Hanafi scholarship. Nevertheless, if you are a follower of a Maz-hab (school of thought) apart from the Hanafi School or you prefer to refrain from such products then that is fine too. We will try to facilitate such persons by indicating which products are affected on this web-site as far as possible.

And i you're still unsure, I sent the above two (the email and the fatwa) , to Mufti Muhammad and asked him about it and he has confirmed it:

From: daruliftaa Leicester ...
Sent: 04 March 2008 13:08:50
To: ...

Wa alaykum assalam Warahmatullah

Yes, the answer is correct and good. As long as the alcohol is used only in the flavourings, then it will be Halal. Also, the alcohol dissolves during the manufacturing process.

...

Wassalam

Hope that helps. Request for duas.
Umm Hurairah