With the global Halal tsunami now sweeping all four corners of the globe, industry leaders are now masterminding a push into Halal’s final frontier – space.

Seeing the likelihood of more Muslim astronauts in space, the Texas A&M University System has expressed interest to conduct research on the application of halal food as part of its NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) programme.

Its Food Protein Research and Development Center Director Mian Nadeem Riaz said the research could only be carried out if the world’s first Muslim astronaut Datuk Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor made an official request to have halal food developed for consumption in outer space.

“If there is a demand for Halal Food, we will have a research on it, according to NASA requirements,” he said when met after attending Dr Sheikh Muszaphar’s talk on “Innovation Technology, The Next Frontier” during the World Halal Research Summit on Friday.

The Texas A&M University System conducts more than US$600 million (RM2.04 billion) in research and reaches out to about 11 million people through its service annually.

Dr Sheikh Muszaphar also agreed that such research undertaking is very important especially in these early stages.

“It will be good to cooperate with researchers who are involved with NASA because halal food is also good for non-Muslim astronaut,” he said adding that he would be contacting Texas A&M University System on the matter.