Question:

Is krill or krill oil halal?

Krill is a type of crustacean, but some crustaceans are halal and other haram so I’m not sure.

Answer:

Of the sea animals only fish that have scales are Halal. The only exception we have in the Ahadith is روبیان which we call shrimp or prawn. The narration says it’s a kind of fish. Apparently the shell of shrimp is the same as the scale of fish.

Now if one says shrimp is a general name, and krill is from the same crustacean family of shrimp, then we can say krill is also Halal the same as shrimp.

But if we say that although both of them are from the crustacean family, they are not the same, then we must say because krill doesn’t have scales and it is not shrimp, therefore it is not halal.

Therefore, its permissibility depends on whether scientifically its shell  is exactly the same as shrimp or not. To say its similar to shrimp is not enough because for exceptions we have to stick to the ones mentioned in the narrations.

Answered by: Sheikh Mansour Leghaei