Food Safety & Healthy Eating Initiative Launched In Dubai

The new 'Healthy to Happy Schools,' food initiative has been launched across eight Dubai private schools this week.

The initiative aims to promote food safety and healthy eating among children in the emirate.

To date, The Central High School, City School, GEMS Winchester, New Model Indian School, Gulf Indian High School, GEMS Modern Academy, Al Sadiq Islamic School and The American School of Creative Science have all implemented the programme.

The schools have each formed a 'Healthy to Happy School Club' with around 15 interested students. The clubs will now act as representatives for the municipality's Food Safety department.

According to Gulf News, the clubs are to be given training on: nutrition, portion size, food safety, food waste control, cooking skills and healthy lunch box preparation.

It is then hoped they will disseminate the information to other students in the school via various age appropriate initiatives and activities.

Noura Abdulla Al Shamsi, head of Food Permits and Applied Nutrition Section in the Food Safety Department, told Gulf News, “the Food Safety Department of Dubai Municipality takes all the measures to ensure food safety along the food chain from farm to table.”

“The youth and the students require our special attention pertaining to food safety and to meet the principles of healthy nutrition,” she said.

“We aim to educate both parents and children about healthy eating and proper food handling practices which will compliment nutritional eating and food safety at the same time,” she went on.