A halal and healthy lifestyle was promoted at a charitable and informative food festival.

The Halal Food Foundation’s (HFF) first Family Fiesta was held at St. Barnabas Church Hall , Pitshanger Lane, Ealing , on Saturday (September 20).

About 300 people benefitted from talks by Willowbrook Organic Farm, Action on Sugar and Food Technologists and enjoyed the presence of animal welfare organisation Compassion in World Farming.

A balloon modeller entertained the children and there were a variety of workshops available, a henna stall and demonstrations including how to make mango sorbet by Jyoti from the Veggie Kitchen.

Makers of the first halal ready meals, ieat, gave out free samples of their products and Great Taste Award winners Snowflake Gelato had a range of delicious flavours of sorbet on sale.

Zéna Butt, Information Officer for the not-for-profit charity, said: “It was a great turnout and the talks went well.

“It was the first event of its kind but we are hoping to do them annually and next time we want it to be bigger. It’s about putting the charity on the map.

“We are not solely interested in the Muslim community, we want to reach the wider community as well and to start giving talks in schools relating to healthy eating.”

HFF, based in Finchley, north London, was set up in 2010 but started working last year. It is a charitable arm of the Halal Food Authority (HFA) who are an international certification body and one of the talks was by a HFA halal food technologist on gelatine and E numbers.

For HFF’s Twitter page go to @HFF_UK.