Dubai Schools Promote Health with New Guidelines

Healthier Canteens in Dubai Schools: New Nutritional Guidelines Implemented

A new era in dining habits is beginning across schools and colleges in Dubai. The updated dietary and nutrition guidelines introduced by the Dubai Municipality (DM) aim to provide healthier meals to students in educational establishments, featuring less added sugar, more fiber, conscious portion sizes, and local ingredients. The goal is to reach more than 400,000 students across over 500 schools with these changes.

New Guidelines for School Catering

Under the new regulations, schools are required to reduce the added sugar content in meals, increase fiber intake, promote water consumption, and curb food waste. Additionally, there are regulations on tea and coffee servings, along with defined portion sizes, providing clear directions for canteens on portion control and maintaining calorie balance.

Sustainability also took center stage with a preference for using local products, supporting the region's agriculture, and reducing environmental impact.

Learning Through Fun: Interactive Food Safety

The Dubai Municipality has also launched a new digital learning platform called My School Food. This platform teaches students the basics of food safety in a fun way—such as how to store food at the right temperature and what the safe food preparation rules are. The aim is to turn children into conscious consumers at an early age and to help them propagate these good practices within their families.

Nutrition in Charge: Assigned Nutrition Supervisors

Under the new regulations, each institution must have an assigned nutrition supervisor participating in the Nutrition in Charge (NIC) program. This individual is responsible for menu planning, adherence to dietary standards, training canteen staff, and monitoring students' eating habits. Menus are approved by the Dubai Municipality to ensure quality and compliance with the standards.

Self-Assessment Tool for Schools

The Dubai Municipality has developed a smart self-assessment system to help schools evaluate their own menus. Through the digital dashboard, administrators can track compliance indicators, audit schedules, and the status of their institution. The system also includes a real-time map showing how schools align with the new dietary guidelines, and provides downloadable reports for audits.

Fostering Health Awareness in Early Childhood

The new program aims to not only change food quality but also reshape students’ perceptions. Healthy eating is not just about the canteen—it is important for children to understand why avoiding too much sugar is beneficial and why fiber-rich foods are valuable. Through such mindset-shaping, the rates of childhood obesity may decrease, and overall well-being can improve in the long term.

Conclusion

Dubai again leads in promoting a healthy lifestyle—this time through the canteens of educational institutions. Playful learning, stricter nutritional regulations, and sustainability come simultaneously to the fore, ensuring that the next generation lives more consciously and healthily. The new measures may pose challenges for all schools, but in the long run, both students and parents stand to gain.

(Source: Press release from Dubai Municipality (DM))