Track food safety from farm to fork

Soon, residents will be able to get information about food establishments and detailed account of the items and recipes served.

Dubai Municipality launched Food Watch App during the 11th Food Safety Conference to enable residents with diabetes, hypertension or specific food allergies to access the food establishments that serve them the right type of food.

The new smart integrated system aims to trace the food from "farm to fork" and monitor over 20,000 food establishments to achieve high levels of safety in the run up to Expo 2020.

While the civic body is currently creating the database of all food establishments and gathering information about their menus, officials say it will be live to consumers in the next six to nine months.

Eng. Hussain Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality, said the new high-tech app will allow residents with specific allergies access the right type of food and get full information on the recipes and food items served at a specific establishment.

"Let's say a consumer wants organic food. He enters the data on the system, which will show him the restaurants that serve organic food, along with the restaurant's ranking, food item's calories, suppliers he gets the food from and everything required to ensure the food served is safe," Lootah told Khaleej Times.

He added, "The app helps the civic body keep track of the food and connect with food establishments and hotels across the city to provide residents with healthy and safe food."

Noura Abdulla Al Shamsi, Head of Food Permits and Applied Nutrition Section at Dubai Municipality, said over 100 field inspectors are currently on the ground to gather information of restaurants and their menus and register them on the new smart system.

Food Watch will help the municipality track the food from its import to the country until its delivered to consumers. It is meant to digitise the approval process and connect municipality to restaurants without the need for paperwork.

"Using IoT, we will be able to track the temperature control of shipments, how many times the container was open, and so on. So if a shipment enters the country with low temperature control, we will automatically reject it as it may pose risk," said Al Shamsi.

Role of technology in reducing food poisoning

Meanwhile, Basheer Hassan Yousuf, Food Safety Specialist in Dubai Municipality, said the app will help track food poisoning outbreaks as it tracks food items, helping the civic body "predict, protect and prevent."

"If a food poisoning case happened, it will be easier to track the food item that caused it because everything is already registered in the system. Blockchain technology and modern methods input in the program gives the prediction of what might happen," said Yousuf.

Through the smart system, food establishments will also be able to get municipality's approval on their health claim before adding the Healthy Food Logo on each item in the menu.

Earlier, the municipality launched the logo that certifies that a meal in a specific restaurant follows health requirements of offering a balanced diet, paying special focus to limited calories and limited use of salt and saturated fats that contribute to the high levels of hypertension and heart disease in UAE. 

The civic body will be able to track the health claim and give food establishments approval accordingly without having to undergo paperwork.