RIO DE JANEIRO – Olympic Muslim athletes can now enjoy halal meals during their stay in the Olympic Village in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro, after Brazil Islamic Center has been commissioned by the Brazilian officials to serve halal food to athletes during the games.

The center, working for 20 years in halal food industry, will provide halal food for Muslim delegations in Rio, IRNA news agency reported on Saturday, August 6.

Commissioned by the government, it has been provided with separate kitchens in the Olympic village along with a large dining hall which is capable of hosting more than 2,000 athletes and managers of Muslim delegations.

The whole system of catering, preparation, and distribution of food is handled by the Islamic Center and under its supervision.

The project complies with the health standards of the Olympic organizing committee.

The workers and cooks are uniformed and easily identified.

The dining complex of Olympic village provides more than 65,000 foods to more than 18,000 athletes and delegation members; 8,000 athletes and delegation members will receive food with halal labels on them.

Halal food is a wide industry in Brazil.

Brazil Islamic Center, an Islamic NGO, has also provided halal food in major events including 2014 FIFA World Cup and Rio+20 in 2012.

The 2016 Summer Olympics kicked off on Friday, August 5, in Rio de Janeiro and runs until August 21.

The concept of halal, — meaning permissible in Arabic — has traditionally been applied to food.

Muslims should only eat meat from livestock slaughtered by a sharp knife from their necks, and the name of Allah, the Arabic word for God, must be mentioned.

Halal food is consumed not only by 1.5 billion Muslims around the world, but also by at least 500 million non-Muslims.