Islamic jurists to decide on use of by-product CO2

A panel of Islamic jurists will investigate the impact on Muslim consumers of South African SA Breweries decision to use carbon dioxide derived from beer production in soft drinks.

This comes after SAB, the local arm of beer giant SABMiller, announced this week that it would invest R100m ($13.8m) in a new carbon dioxide capacity due to recent severe shortages of the gas. The facility will start operating in October. The facility will purify carbon dioxide produced as a by-product of the brewing process and use it to carbonate the Coca-Cola brands bottled by subsidiary ABI, including Coke, Fanta and Sprite.

Moulana Abdul Wahab Wookay, the chief executive of the National Independent Halaal Trust (NIHT), said, $quot;The NIHT has been informed by SAB of the plans, but we would have to consult more widely and a panel of muftis (Islamic jurists) would need to investigate further.$quot;