Dubai Municipality has unveiled a package of its latest innovative digital services and initiatives aimed at facilitating food trade in the region and ensuring the highest standards of food safety in the emirate of Dubai. The municipality's participation in Gulfood reaffirms its commitment to enhancing the sustainability and safety of the food system, ensuring flexible food supply chains, and creating an attractive environment for investors and entrepreneurs to develop their projects. "Our goal is to have an integrated and sustainable food safety system that provides flexible food supply chains and safe and healthy levels throughout the chain, with the aim of enhancing the quality of life, health, and food safety," the statement said. This also reflects its ongoing commitment to improving the efficiency of the system, which starts from the country of import to inspection at ports, testing in laboratories, and control of food circulating in the local market, to ensure the best level of quality of life, health, and safety. During the exhibition, Dubai Municipality launched a specialized laboratory for detecting insect residues in food products, a step that reflects its vision of developing an advanced laboratory system that operates according to the best global practices and standards in the field of food safety. Dubai Central Laboratory has recently been developing an integrated laboratory equipped with the latest equipment and technologies, supported by tools designed specifically for the accurate and rapid detection of insect residues in food products, ensuring the highest level of accuracy and reliability of results. The laboratory is currently undergoing a trial period, expected to end in the first quarter of this year, after which it will officially start receiving samples and conducting laboratory tests, which will contribute to strengthening the food safety system and enhancing Dubai's readiness to keep pace with global developments in this field. The initiative comes amid rapid climate changes that have affected the availability of natural resources, and the accompanying global trend towards adopting alternative and sustainable sources, including the use of certain types of insects as a protein source in food products, in accordance with international legislation and standards approved last year. In addition, the list of Dubai Municipality's initiatives and services at Gulfood includes several projects, such as the microscopic exploration unit project, which provides the latest technologies in laboratory tests used in Dubai Central Laboratory, and sample preparation for virus testing using advanced robotic arms. The system scheme was also developed after benchmarking with more than 12 regional and international entities, distinguished by its high flexibility for continuous improvement based on feedback and user observations. Furthermore, a virtual assistant named "Ghalia" was developed, powered by artificial intelligence developed by Dubai Municipality, to provide instant support and accurate answers regarding food safety and nutritional guidelines in Dubai schools, as well as to meet the needs of students, parents, and food suppliers to facilitate quick and efficient access to information. Dr. Nasim Mohammed Rifaai, Executive Director of the Environment, Health, and Safety Sector at Dubai Municipality, confirmed that Gulfood is a leading platform that brings together researchers and experts from the food and beverage sector to exchange experiences, propose and adopt innovative ideas, and build partnerships that contribute to the development of this sector regionally and internationally. Dr. Nasim said: "Dubai Municipality is leading the future of food safety in Dubai by enhancing innovation and digital transformation in the food system and sector to make it more advanced and sustainable; advanced technology and smart systems are key factors in enhancing inspection accuracy, transparency, response speed, and providing a sustainable food system, as well as offering innovative digital services and quality initiatives aimed at facilitating food trade in the region and ensuring the highest standards of food safety in the emirate of Dubai." In the same context, Dubai Municipality will engage its audience at the "Robot Rashid" exhibition, which will provide interactive services and introduce them to the innovations of Dubai Central Laboratory. In the field of food safety, Dubai Municipality presents its latest innovations in developing the food system, enhancing its safety, and improving the efficiency of the services it provides in the food sector, which include: "smart glasses" for food inspection in ports and food establishments, which contribute to transforming inspection operations in ports and warehouses into fully digital and remote inspections, increasing work efficiency and reducing the need for on-site presence of inspectors while maintaining inspection accuracy, transparency, and compliance with regulatory requirements. In addition, the "Producers Plus" system will be showcased, which is an integrated system for regulating the circulation of imported and exported products under one umbrella, bringing together food, health, and safety, and includes a huge database containing more than 1.5 million registered products, contributing to efficient import, export, tracking, and tracing of products. The system presents all services as a comprehensive journey for the client rather than as separate services, including three stages: registration, import, and export. Dubai Municipality is participating in the 31st edition of Gulfood 2026, the world's largest annual food and beverage exhibition, held at the Dubai World Trade Centre from January 26 to 30.
