Dubai Municipality announced a series of regulatory measures and awareness initiatives aimed at ensuring the highest standards of food safety and proper nutrition in schools, as well as enhancing health and general safety levels across various educational institutions in Dubai, including kindergartens, nurseries, and schools, to provide a safe and healthy educational environment for students throughout the academic year.

According to a press statement issued yesterday, the municipality conducted inspection tours as part of comprehensive and continuous inspection programs targeting school canteens through regular field visits across the emirate, in addition to daily compliance monitoring via the “DM Checked” platform, which provides accurate and transparent tracking of canteen performance. The municipality also reviewed and approved food menus according to Dubai’s food and nutrition guidelines and requirements in educational institutions, ensuring adherence to the highest standards of food safety and nutrition.

These efforts reflect Dubai Municipality’s commitment to protecting public health and ensuring a safe and healthy food environment for all students, in line with its vision to build a sustainable health and food system that provides an advanced level of proactive protection, enhancing the quality of life for the community in Dubai.

A team of five food safety inspectors annually supervises 456 educational institutions in Dubai. The Applied Nutrition and Awareness Department organizes training workshops for canteen workers and food safety and nutrition officers, alongside awareness sessions for students about food safety, proper nutrition, and reducing food loss and waste, fostering positive and sustainable eating habits in various educational settings.

School canteens adhere to the Smart Food Choices system, which classifies foods into four categories: green, yellow, red, and black. This system aims to promote healthy options such as fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and beverages like water and low-fat milk.

Dubai Municipality conducted inspection tours of educational institutions in Dubai, including auditing the compliance of school buildings with Dubai Municipality’s regulations and standards, such as examining ventilation and air conditioning systems and their filters, swimming pools in schools, auditing the compliance and quality of water systems in educational institutions, verifying cleaning and sterilization reports of tanks, preventive maintenance of internal distribution networks, in addition to verifying the safety and compliance of school uniforms with approved specifications.

The municipality emphasized that it takes immediate action in cases of non-compliance, including withdrawing and banning the circulation of violating products, as well as obliging the concerned establishments and stores to take the necessary corrective measures.