Overview

Food laws are established within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Gulf Standardization Organization (GSO) and are adopted by the participating memeber-countries. All GCC member states, which include Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have the authority to develop and institute national food legislation, in addition to those formed within the GSO. In August 2016, GSO announced the issuance of a list of new technical food safety regulations concerning food products, packaging materials, and animal feed. GSO standards are typically based on the Codex Alimentarius regulations of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 22000, and to some extent, on the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) and the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) standards, but are modified to reflect local religious, cultural, and climatic conditions.

The GSO often adopts existing member-countries’ standards after updating them and ensuring that they conform to the Codex Alimentarius guidelines and/or ISO standards. All imported food is subjected to health control at their point of entry to ensure that all food complies with the GCC technical food safety regulations, e.g., Gulf technical regulations for the labeling of pre-packaged foodstuffs, expiry dates of food products, requirements for nutrition labeling, and many more.

Freyr experts assist GCC market entrants with end-to-end Regulatory support.