Dubai Municipality launches Food Watch application
Dubai News: Soon, residents will be able to get information about food establishments and a detailed report on food products and their recipes.
Dubai Municipality launched the Food Watch app during the 11th Food Safety Conference to allow people with diabetes, hypertension or specific food allergies to access food establishments ..
A new intelligent integrated system aims to track food from the farm to the fork and monitor more than 20,000 food agencies to achieve a high level of security ahead of Expo 2020.
While the civil authority is currently creating a database of all food establishments and collecting information about their menu, officials say they will live for consumers for the next six to nine months.
Hussain Luta, CEO of Dubai Municipality, said the new high-tech app will allow residents with specific allergies to access the right type of food and get complete information about the recipes and foods that are served in a particular institution.
“Suppose that a consumer wants to get organic food. He enters data into the system, which will show him restaurants that serve organic food, as well as restaurant rating, food calories, suppliers from which he receives food and everything necessary to ensure food is served safely, Lootah told Khaleej times.
He added: «The app helps a civilian body monitor food and connect with food establishments and hotels throughout the city to provide residents with healthy and safe food».
Noura Abdullah Al Shamsi, Head of Food Permits and Applied Nutrition at the Dubai Municipality, said that currently more than 100 field inspectors are in the field to gather information about restaurants and their menus and register them on the new intellectual system.
Food Watch will help the municipality track food from its imports into the country until it is delivered to consumers. It is designed to digitize the approval process and connect the municipality to restaurants without the need for paperwork.
«Using Food Watch, we will be able to track the temperature control of shipments, how many times the container has been opened, etc. Therefore, if the shipment arrives in a country with a low level of temperature control, we will automatically reject it because it may pose a risk», said Al Shamsi .
The role of technology in reducing food poisoning
Meanwhile, Basher Hassan Yusuf, a food safety specialist at Dubai Municipality, said the application will help track food poisoning outbreaks by tracking food products, helping the civil authority to “predict, protect and prevent.”
«If food poisoning had occurred, it would be easier to track the product that caused it, because everything is already registered in the system. The Blockchain technology and modern input methods in the program predict what might happen», said Yusuf.
Through an intellectual system, food agencies will also be able to get approval from the municipality for their health claims before adding the Healthy Food logo on each menu item.
The municipality has previously launched a logo certifying that food at a particular restaurant meets health requirements, offering a balanced diet, paying particular attention to limited calories and limited use of salt and saturated fat, which contribute to high levels of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases in the UAE.
A civil authority will be able to track a health complaint and give the appropriate food permit, without the need for processing documents.
Source: Khaleejtimes.
