From 25 September, Turkey checks every halal-labelled import through a digital customs platform: the Ministry itself says the duty is not limited to the product list attached to the rule

What actually changes on 25 September

Before this communiqué, a halal mark or certificate on an imported product was, from a Turkish customs standpoint, a label like any other: nothing in the import process specifically verified that the certifying body behind it was accredited or that the certificate itself was genuine. Communiqué 2026/35 closes that gap by routing halal-certificate verification through TAREKS, the same digital risk-based platform Turkey already uses to screen imports against other technical regulations. An importer whose shipment carries a halal claim must now have the underlying certificate checked against HAK's own accreditation records before the goods clear customs; a certificate from an unaccredited or unrecognised body fails automatically, independent of whether the product itself would otherwise meet a halal standard. The stated purpose, in the Ministry's own wording, is to stop halal marks and certificates on imported goods from constituting an unfair commercial practice and a deceptive claim toward Turkish consumers, which is also why the rule is framed around the claim itself rather than around a fixed list of product categories. Non-compliance is not limited to a blocked shipment: the communiqué states that false or misleading halal claims are subject to sanctions under Turkey's existing consumer-protection and commercial-practice provisions, on top of the customs consequence.

The numbers behind the rule

One number is how little runway brands have between the rule reaching the Gazette and it becoming enforceable. One is how recently the certification regime it checks grew past food alone. The third is how much of Turkey's halal-certification market the accreditation body behind this rule has actually reached so far.

The real subject: an annex that the regulator says isn't the boundary

Most coverage of Communiqué 2026/35, including in Turkey's own trade press, describes it as a customs-codes story: an annex lists the product categories, tied to HAK's accredited domains, that now face TAREKS-based halal-certificate checks. That framing understates what the Ministry itself said when explaining the rule: the obligation is not limited to the products the annex names. Any imported product placed on the Turkish market carrying a halal claim, in whatever form that claim appears, on packaging, in marketing copy or on a product label, now needs a certificate issued or recognised by HAK. The annex sets which categories automatically route through the TAREKS check at the border; the underlying legal duty, on the Ministry's own account, reaches further than that automated screen. That distinction matters because HAK's own accreditation scope has already moved well past food: since 2025 it also covers food packaging, cosmetics, tourism, logistics and accommodation, meaning a facial cream or a shampoo marketed with a halal claim, not only a food product, sits inside the same compliance chain this communiqué now enforces at the border. A brand whose product does not appear in the annex's named categories, but that still carries a halal claim somewhere in its Turkish market presentation, is relying on a limitation the regulator has already said does not exist as a defense.

Why it matters for brands

Three groups should treat 25 September as an active deadline rather than a niche customs update. First, any brand shipping food, cosmetics or personal-care products into Turkey that carries a halal claim anywhere in its packaging or marketing, even a product outside the annex's named categories, should confirm now whether its certifying body is accredited by HAK or recognised by HAK under a mutual-recognition arrangement, since a genuine certificate from an unrecognised body will still fail a TAREKS check after 25 September. Second, brands that have historically treated a halal mark as a marketing add-on rather than a regulated claim, common in cosmetics and personal care where the accreditation regime is newer than in food, should audit that claim the same way they would audit any other regulated on-pack statement, because HAK's 2025 scope expansion already brought those categories inside the same accreditation chain this communiqué now checks at the border. Third, any compliance or product-data team managing SKUs sold into Turkey should add a structured, per-SKU field for whether a halal claim exists anywhere in that product's Turkish-market presentation, and which body certified it, rather than treating 'halal' as unstructured marketing text: from 25 September, a claim that exists in the data but has no verifiable, HAK-linked certificate behind it is what a TAREKS check is built to catch, whether or not the product's customs code appears in the communiqué's own annex.

Two ways to read the 25 September deadline

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