Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of socio-cultural variables on consumers’ perception on
halal food products (food prepared according to Islamic dietary laws). We assume that a number of socio-cultural
factors affect consumers’ purchase of food products especially education, religion, occupation and social
stratification. As the Halal principles are taken from the Syariah law (Law of Islam), how do consumers in
Masvingo, Zimbabwe view the food products that are prepared under Islamic dietary laws? This study was
rekindled by the contention that Zimbabwe is largely a Christian country and may prefer to be guided by
Christian values founded on Biblical laws. We had four hypotheses which were tested using Spearman’s rank
correlation coefficient. The results revealed that indeed socio-cultural factors have little or no influence on an
individual consumer’s perception on consumption of halal certified food products. However, it was found out
that the Islamic consumers and other religious groups other than protestant, catholic, baptist and apostolic are
highly sensitive to their socio-cultural orientations.

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