Can you spot the haram ingredient before time runs out?

Quick test. Read this list and find the problem: sugar, wheat flour, sunflower oil, gelatin, salt, E330. Got it? Gelatin can come from pork, unless the source is halal. Now imagine doing that with a timer running, on a list that gets longer every round. That is Label Detective.

It is a free game inside Halal Food, and it has a serious side: once you have played for a few days, you start reading real packets differently.

Why read a label like a detective?

Haram and doubtful ingredients rarely announce themselves. They hide in sweets, biscuits, sauces and desserts, sometimes under an everyday word, sometimes behind a code like E471. A halal logo makes things easy, but plenty of products don’t have one, and standing in a shop reading tiny print is hard when you don’t know what you’re looking for. The fix is practice, and practice is much better as a game.

How a round works

Each round puts a food package in front of you: a box of biscuits, a jar of jam, a bottle of sauce. Every one looks different, with its own brand, colours and a real-looking ingredient sticker. Then the clock starts.

• Tap the suspect ingredient before the timer runs out. The faster you are, the more points you score.
• Some labels hide two or three suspects, and you have to find every one.
• Some labels are clean. Tap “This label is clean”, and don’t get tricked into accusing an innocent ingredient.

You have three lives. A wrong tap or a timeout costs one, and the game shows you why the ingredient was suspect. That is the part that sticks: every mistake teaches you something you will remember in the shop.

It gets harder, in a good way

You start with the obvious ones: lard, ham, wine, rum. Soon come carmine and gelatin, and then the real test, bare codes like E441 or E904 hidden among harmless additives. Lists get longer, time gets shorter, and everyday names mix with E-numbers, just as they do on real labels.

Climb the leaderboard

The game menu shows the top players, with a podium for the top three and each player’s country flag. Your best score is saved on your phone even without an account. Sign in, add it to your account, and try to break into the top 10 for your country. Honest scores only: each one is checked before it counts.

How to play

Label Detective is included in Halal Food, free on iPhone, iPad and Android, in 16 languages. Install the app, tap Game on the Home screen, then Play.

And when the game is over, the rest of the app does the real work: scan a barcode or an ingredient list to check a food, look up any E-number, read and listen to the Quran, find the Qibla, and share halal recipes on Foodtok. Think you’re a good detective? Go and prove it.