Domino's Pizza branch bans pork to go 100% halal

The pizza chain's Hall Green branch in Birmingham has stopped selling pizzas with pork products to appeal to the area's large Muslim population who follow a strict non-pork diet.

Ingredients such as bacon, ham and pepperoni have been replaced with halal spicy beef sausage, roast and tandoori chicken, halal pepperoni and halal cured turkey, all produced and stored within the Halal Food Authorities guidelines.

For meat to be deemed halal it must meet certain conditions including that the animal should be killed by having its throat cut by a Muslim and any flowing blood of the carcass should be completely drained.

It is Domino's first fully halal outlet in Britain, but more are expected to follow.

A spokesman for Domino's said: "In that particular area of Birmingham there are a large number of Muslims so there is naturally more of a demand for halal based products."

Masood Khawaja, president of the Halal Food Authority, said: "It's good news for Muslims, with changing pallets, who want a bit of variety in their diet. This is only the beginning and we are delighted that Domino's is participating in this trend."

The move has angered some customers in Hall Green who now have to travel two miles to another branch if they want the choice of pizzas such as the Meteor, which is topped with pepperoni, sausage, meatballs, ground beef and smoky bacon.

Chris Yates, a former customer living in Moseley, Birmingham, said: "I'm all for racial and religious tolerance but if anything this is intolerant to my beliefs and discriminatory against me.

"Hall Green is a mixed race area and should therefore cater to its multicultural make-up."

Another Hall Green resident, Peter Merholz, 38, echoed these sentiments: "This is a global pizza chain that is isolating western values and choice. It's alienating people and that's just not on.

"I'd been coming here for ages but now I'll go elsewhere because I can't get a pepperoni pizza, which is what I always have."