Behind today's announcement of MIHAS Awards 2026's 13 winners lies a judging process that turns out to be fairly rigorous — complete with oversight from an independent external auditor. For exhibitors curious about how a company actually gets selected as a winner at this largest halal awards event, here's the full picture of the process.
MIHAS Awards 2026 was open to eligible Malaysian and international exhibitors participating in MIHAS 2026. The first stage entrants must go through is pre-assessment — a kind of initial screening to ensure incoming entries meet basic criteria before moving to the next stage. After passing pre-assessment, participants then enter pitching sessions before an independent panel of judges, where they get the chance to directly demonstrate their business achievements, innovation capabilities, sustainability initiatives, and use of digital technology and new solutions they've implemented.
What makes this process feel more credible than typical industry awards is the involvement of an independent external auditor. MATRADE specifically appointed this auditor to observe and validate the entire evaluation process — from the pre-assessment stage through to the final winner decisions. This step underscores that judging results aren't determined internally without third-party oversight, but through an independently verified process.
MATRADE CEO YBhg. Dato' Indera Abu Bakar Yusof explicitly referenced the external auditor's role as part of MATRADE's commitment to credibility and transparency. He said this kind of independent validation strengthens trust in the final judging results — important given the social and commercial status attached to the "MIHAS Awards winner" title for companies that earn it.
This rigorous process also aligns with the shift in MIHAS Awards' evaluation criteria this year, which now emphasises more aspects beyond simple business performance alone. This year's evaluation specifically recognised companies leveraging digital solutions and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, to enhance products and services, improve business processes, strengthen market reach, and create new sources of value. With criteria becoming this complex, the presence of an independent judging panel and external auditor validation becomes even more important — so that harder-to-quantify factors like innovation and sustainability can still be assessed fairly and consistently across entrants.
A total of 13 awards were presented this year across five categories: Product/Service Excellence Awards, Product/Service Emerging Star Award, Product/Service WiEX Award, Product/Service Innovation, Sustainability and Digitalisation Award, and WiEX Innovation, Sustainability and Digitalisation Award. With so many categories and entrants to assess, this structured, tightly supervised judging process becomes crucial for ensuring consistent evaluation across every category.
For exhibitors planning to enter future editions of the MIHAS Awards, understanding this judging process matters for preparing appropriately — not just gathering business achievement data, but also building a clear narrative on how innovation, sustainability, and technology adoption are applied within their business, since these are now the key deciding factors at the pitching and evaluation stage. This kind of process transparency is also a distinct advantage for MIHAS Awards compared to other industry awards that are sometimes less open about how final decisions are made.
More broadly, the move to involve an independent external auditor also addresses a common criticism often levelled at industry award ceremonies: that results are sometimes questioned for being too influenced by business relationships between organisers and entrants, or for lacking transparency about the actual criteria judges use. By bringing in an independent third party to oversee the entire process, MIHAS Awards is working to build stronger credibility — something that matters given MIHAS's own scale as the world's largest halal trade exhibition, where "winner" status can carry real weight for an exhibitor's reputation and business opportunities in international markets, including making it easier to build trust with new prospective buyers at future exhibitions.
Moslem Journey will continue following developments in global halal industry evaluation standards. Stay tuned for full coverage.
