A Sydney chicken supplier and restaurant chain has abruptly stopped delivering non-halal products including pork-based bacon and ham to attract more Muslim customers.
Red Lea sent out a letter to its franchisees and wholesalers telling them pork products would be taken off the production line.
This heralded an end to bacon-wrapped chicken mignon and bacon twists, with bacon-flavoured chicken used instead of cured pork.
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Red Lea is now delivering chicken mignon with artificial bacon to wholesalers (stock image)
The memo sent to Red Lea’s wholesale customers in September announcing new halal policy
‘The benefit will be to improve the ability to achieve better halal compliance and competitive opportunities,’ the memo said.
‘There may be some issues with the transition but hope these are minimal.’
Half of the chicken chain’s 38 stores are in western Sydney including in the suburbs of Auburn and Bankstown, which are home to a higher proportion of Muslims than any other part of Australia.
The change will see products that previously contained bacon substituted with bacon-flavoured chicken, including chicken mignon and cordon bleu.
The Bacon Twist is being renamed to Chicken Twist while Bacon and Cheese Deboned becomes Cheese Deboned.
Bobby Bradford, the owner of The Major Oak Theatre Restaurant at St Marys in Sydney’s west, was upset at Red Lea’s abrupt change to his chicken supplies after 20 years as a weekly, wholesale customer.
The Red Lea chicken supply chain said the changes were to achieve ‘better halal compliance’
‘We found out only two weeks ago that he decided to remove all pork products from the entire range of Red Lea,’ he told Sydney radio 2GB presenter Ben Fordham on Monday.
‘When we received them in the afternoon and opened up the mignon, it was like something from the sole of your shoe wrapped around a piece of chicken. It was like spam.’
Mr Bradford said just ‘0.001 per cent’ of his customers requested halal products.
‘It’s certainly not a racist thing. They’ve taken away the opportunity for Australians to eat which they love which is pork or bacon,’ he said.
He added he had taken chicken mignon with fake bacon off the menu, and is instead serving the halal chicken Kiev, after serving chicken mignon with real bacon as one of his main dishes for many years.
Fordham posted on Facebook the Red Lea memo to its wholesale customers, dated September 19.
The change comes about two years after the Asif family became the majority owner of the 60-year-old company.
Red Lea has restaurants across Sydney, the Central Coast and Newcastle.
Daily Mail Australia contacted Red Lea for comment.