Overview

Consumer safety is the most important crux of any national Health Authority. All food and food supplements that are introduced or imported into the United Arab Emirates (UAE) should be compliant with the UAE food regulations. The Food Safety Department - Dubai Municipality (DM) & the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP) aims at guaranteeing and enforcing proper food control procedures. To enable food product registration (or) food supplement registration in the UAE, the manufacturer should file the product under the DM food registration system and before any food item can be imported into Dubai, the food item and its label must be registered in the Food Import and Re-export System (FIRS) of DM. Product registration application of food supplements with higher claims and with critical ingredients must be submitted to MOHAP with proper & prior product classification from the authority. Applications of food supplements that have higher claims and that have critical ingredients must be submitted to MOHAP with a proper prior product classification from the authorities.

The UAE food labeling regulation requires mandatory labeling information on all food packaging such as brand name, production and expiration dates, net weight, lot number, halal marking, etc.

Additionally, there are Gulf Standardization Organization (GSO) Technical Regulations that are referred to and applied within the UAE e.g., GSO 2233 Requirements of Nutritional Labelling, GSO CAC GL 1 General Guidelines for Misleading Food Claims, GSO 2142 Technical Regulations for Novel Foods- Genetically Modified Processed Food and Feed, GSO 654 Foods for Special Dietary Use, Food Used for Special Medical Purposes, Halal Requirements in Food, and many more.

Freyr in-house experts guide and assist in food & food supplements classification, formulation/ingredient assessment, label & claims review, technical dossier compilation, submission & follow-up with the DM or the MOHAP in the UAE.