Dubai overhauls school canteens, unveils new website, AI chatbot with stricter guidelines

Dubai: Dubai Municipality (DM) has launched a groundbreaking digital initiative, "My School Food," a comprehensive platform designed to revolutionise food safety and nutrition standards in educational institutions across the emirate.

The new system introduces stringent guidelines and leverages technology, including an AI chatbot, to ensure healthier eating habits for students through school canteens and even at home.

Spearheaded by the Food Safety Department, the "My School Food" platform aims to create a robust ecosystem for all stakeholders – from caterers and educational institutions to parents, teachers, and students. The new initiative was unveiled during the third Dubai Food Safety Forum held on Tuesday.

Dr Sultan Ali Al Taher, director of Food Safety Department told Gulf News that the new initiatives aim to foster a healthier generation through advanced digital solutions and collaborative efforts.

“Our mission is to provide the healthiest food in Dubai schools and prevent childhood obesity and lifestyle disorders,” he said.

The My School Food platform will cover more than 400,000 students form over 500 schools, nurseries and universities and over 50 school food suppliers, he said.

The “Enhanced Dubai Food and Nutrition Guidelines and Requirements for Educational Institutions” require school canteens to include calorie-counting, per serving size criteria, and meal and age percentage criteria to ensure clear portion control and consistent labelling.

The platform's nutritional programme is set to enforce stricter guidelines to promote nutrient-rich foods with a strong emphasis on healthier dietary choices. Increasing fibre, reducing added sugars, promoting water intake and regulating consumption of coffee and tea are among the other major requirements.

Maintaining good personal hygiene, preventing transmission of illnesses, allergen management and implementing food safety controls are among the additional food safety requirements specific to educational institutions.

The guidelines also promote sustainability through the concept of ‘Green Canteens.’ Planning sustainable menus, promoting locally sourced food and or ingredients, reducing food waste and avoiding the use of single-use packaging materials will be encouraged.

The platform provides tailored dashboards and resources for different user groups. Teachers will find guidelines on common nutrition challenges and lesson plans, parents will have access to educational courses and healthy recipes, and food suppliers/caterers can benefit from interactive video sessions and downloadable learning materials in multiple languages.

Meanwhile, students can learn more about food safety and nutrition through gamified tutorials and activities.

Further enhancing the platform's accessibility and user experience is an AI Chatbot, providing instant, interactive guidance on nutrition-related queries. The school nutrition AI assistant has been named Ghalia.

The AI assistant, along with the entire "My School Food" system, will be seamlessly integrated into DM Checked, the revamped version of the long-standing "Food Watch" digital platform for food safety and nutrition.

The municipality has also introduced the role of a "Nutrition in Charge" (NIC) in schools like the Person in Charge (PIC) for food safety in food establishments.

The role can be taken on by existing hygiene and food safety officers or someone else for ensuring compliance with the new nutritional mandates and food permit requirements.

A key feature of the platform is the school food audit system, which mandates that all catering companies supplying food to schools register and undergo monthly audits. A designated NIC from either the catering company or the school will conduct these self-audits.

The system also features an interactive Dubai map showing real-time school nutrition compliance and a built-in checklist to guide schools through nutrition compliance. It will have downloadable reports and documentation for audits and menu feedback.

The real-time monitoring capability will allow food inspectors to track the audit history of each entity and base their evaluations on this data.

The Dubai Food Safety Forum was held to mark the World Food Safety Day, observed on June 7 under the theme ‘Food Safety: Science in Action.’

The Forum explored strategic themes focused on the role of science in food safety policymaking and risk management. Discussions addressed how science-based surveillance systems can improve food supply chain resilience, while enabling consumers to make informed and sustainable choices.

Marwan Ahmed Bin Ghalita, Director General of Dubai Municipality, Mohamed Saeed Al Nuaimi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, Dr Ahmed Mokhtar, Acting Regional Programme Leader and Senior Economist at the Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), and Dr Naseem Mohammed Rafie, Acting CEO of the Environment, Health and Safety Agency at Dubai Municipality were among the main officials who attended the event.

Dr Mokhtar said: “The FAO estimates that foodborne illnesses affect nearly 600 million people each year, causing economic losses of more than $110 billion in low- and middle-income countries.”

He lauded Dubai Municipality’s school canteen initiative, saying: “It is a brilliant initiative which takes both food safety and nutrition together based on science and its application.”