UAE Cabinet approves mandatory food labelling policy to encourage healthier eating

A nutrition labelling policy offering consumers more information about the foods they eat has been approved by the UAE Cabinet.

It is the latest initiative to emerge from the Community Design for Wellbeing Initiative launched by the National Program for Happiness and Well-being in April 2019.

The policy aims to improve public health and raise community awareness by encouraging people to adopt a healthy lifestyle with the food choices they make.

Implementation will involve a soft roll-out before it becomes compulsory in January 2022.

The food labelling initiative is part of a series of new directives announced by the UAE Cabinet last month.

Labelling policy on foods will adopt a traffic light system for healthy and less healthy foods based on their ingredients and nutritional content.

A nutrition labelling policy offering consumers more information about the foods they eat has been approved by the UAE Cabinet.

It is the latest initiative to emerge from the Community Design for Wellbeing Initiative launched by the National Program for Happiness and Well-being in April 2019.

The policy aims to improve public health and raise community awareness by encouraging people to adopt a healthy lifestyle with the food choices they make.

Implementation will involve a soft roll-out before it becomes compulsory in January 2022.

The food labelling initiative is part of a series of new directives announced by the UAE Cabinet last month.

Labelling policy on foods will adopt a traffic light system for healthy and less healthy foods based on their ingredients and nutritional content.

The survey also showed that the majority of the respondents (72.5 per cent) prefer colour-coded labels. The total number of people surveyed was not revealed.

A similar initiative in Dubai to mandate restaurants to label the amount of calories in the dishes served was proposed this year but has since been shelved.

Dubai Municipality had hoped to roll-out the calorie information policy in all restaurants, cafeterias and cafes with more than five branches by November.

That has since been delayed to give businesses more time to fall into line.

The scheme will be voluntary over the next two years before a final decision is made on a wider roll-out of public policy.

According to the World Health Organisation, more than 30 per cent of the region’s population is obese.