Dubai Municipality boosts food safety and public health inspections in schools

Dubai: Dubai Municipality has initiated a new, comprehensive program to enhance public health and food safety within the emirate’s schools, kindergartens, and nurseries. The effort is part of a broader vision to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all students for the 2025 academic year.

The new program includes a robust inspection programme for school canteens, which is supplemented by daily monitoring through the 'DM Checked' platform. This digital system provides a transparent way to track canteen performance and streamline the process of approving menus. All menus must now align with Dubai’s specific nutritional guidelines and food safety standards.

A dedicated team of five food safety inspectors is responsible for overseeing 456 educational institutions annually. This team works in tandem with the Applied Nutrition and Awareness Section, which provides essential training to canteen and nutrition staff. The municipality is also directly engaging students through awareness sessions to promote healthy eating, proper food safety practices, and the reduction of food waste.

A key component of this initiative is the mandatory implementation of the Smart Food Choices System in all canteens. This system categorizes food items into four color-coded groups—green, yellow, red, and black—to encourage a greater availability of healthier options, such as fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and water or low-fat milk.

Beyond food, the municipality is also conducting extensive inspections of other school facilities. These checks cover critical areas like ventilation and air-conditioning systems, swimming pools, and water supply networks. The municipality reviews reports on the maintenance of water tanks and verifies that school uniforms meet approved specifications.

The municipality stated that any instances of non-compliance will result in immediate action. This may include the removal of non-conforming products from circulation and the requirement for establishments to implement necessary changes to meet the updated health and safety standards.