Halal food control systems: A bibliometric review of the global knowledge structure and research gaps, with critical reflections for the Gulf Region

This study presents a bibliometric and critical review of global research on halal food control systems, with particular attention to countries developing new halal regulatory frameworks, including Saudi Arabia and the wider Arab region. A systematic review of Scopus-indexed publications from 2010 to 2025 was conducted following PRISMA guidelines. The final global corpus comprised 847 peer-reviewed articles analysed using VOSviewer and Biblioshiny through co-authorship, co-citation, bibliographic coupling, keyword co-occurrence, and thematic evolution analyses. An additional subset of 82 Arab-region studies, covering Gulf Cooperation Council and wider Arab League states, was manually coded using the FAO/WHO five-component national food control system framework. The field grew at an annual rate of 18.3%, with Malaysia and Indonesia contributing 43% and 28% of publications, respectively. Five major research clusters were identified: fatwa-based legislation; multi-agency governance; inspection, enforcement, and laboratory systems; information, education, communication, and training; and emerging technologies, including blockchain and artificial intelligence. Despite rapid growth, the literature remains geographically concentrated, theoretically underdeveloped, methodologically homogeneous, and largely silent on the cost-benefit implications of halal control systems. Few studies integrate Maqasid al-Shari’ah with risk-management approaches or examine halal governance as a complete regulatory system. By applying the FAO/WHO framework, this review moves beyond isolated certification and supply-chain perspectives. It demonstrates that Arab-region halal governance exhibits a distinctive “law-rich but evidence-poor” profile and proposes a research agenda addressing institutional performance, empirical evidence, regulatory effectiveness, and economic trade-offs.