Hey Mick, I'm always puzzled by these demands by Muslims that I as a Muslim have never heard of or agree with. It reminds me of the , "Oh we have to be mindful with our Christmas carols; Christmas decorations, Christmas music..., and of course we need to cater for the Muslims by including halal certified meat."
Really..! I for one can assure you and grantee you that it's all made up fairy tales by non-Muslims..., who've never been approached nor asked by Muslims to allow for such special privileges. It's 100% clear in the Quran what Muslims can and can not eat as far as meat is concerned. The meat of a pig is prohibited under normal circumstances, but is
allowed under rare circumstances also (like starvation). Meat that is allowed under Islamic dietary law is allowed to be eaten if slaughtered by "people of the book", i.e. Jews and Christians (but not others).
Only now that the Muslim community has reached a fairly large number (relatively speaking), that it can do things for itself. "Itself" here does not encompass the non-Muslims in the community nor does it aim to impose its way of life on others. Hence, it makes absolutely no sense to me as an Australian Muslim to expect the non-Muslims in the community to cater for me, as I've never asked for it. However since we live in a capitalist society first and foremost, companies feel the need to "look after those Muslim minority" by catering for them when food is manufactured for example..., I think of yogurt here or ice cream and either the exclusion of "gelatin", or to say that this gelatin is of halal origin, and even the most famous food additive number, the "471" that would stop a Muslim from purchasing the food that includes it for fear of having its origin from pig fat, since 471 is a mono and diglycerides forms of fatty acids. But now we see companies writing: "471 vegetable origin"..., I was happy not to buy Mr. Businessman, but thank you for being so considerate, even when I never asked or demanded it.
So in a nutshell, if halal is available, then there's no excuse to have a non halal meat. By the way, the word halal means permitted or lawful, and is not somehow restricted to meat etc. My wife is halal onto me and I am onto her, that does not mean we're some piece of meat
..., and the word haram means prohibited.
I'll leave it here, as I know you didn't ask for all of the above mate.