The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP), in collaboration with the UAE’s Food Security Office, has launched the National Nutrition Guidelines. The guidelines are a part of the Ministry’s efforts of developing sustainable food safety systems and deploying radical and innovative solutions. The purpose of introducing these guidelines is to build a healthier and sustainable future by improving the nutritional status. What are these National Nutrition Guidelines? Why and how they have been formulated? Let’s take a comprehensive look.
Involvement of Multiple Organizations
The National Nutrition Guidelines are the result of the collaborative work of 18 national partners. The MoHAP has developed the guidelines in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), the UAE’s Food Security Office, and the Gulf Nutrition Committee. Apart from these major organizations, many local agencies were also involved in drafting the guidelines and pushing it forward. The guidelines will act as a national reference for individuals as well as the government entities.
UAE’s Chronic Diseases
The guidelines are also in line with the UAE’s National Agenda 2021 to help keep a check on the increase in number of chronic diseases. The nutrition guidelines will also help the MoHAP to help reduce obesity among the children and adolescents and improve the outcomes of national health indicators. The country has also established a mandatory Food Labeling Policy to help the consumers make informed and healthy decisions.
Features of the Guidelines
The features of the guidelines also align with the country’s international and regional policies. The aim of the guidelines include:
- Boosting education of the individual towards health and nutrition
- Improving the nutritional health by implementing legal frameworks
- Improving the nutritional status of the UAE
- Working on a more sustainable and healthier future
- Controlling the increase in chronic diseases and mortality rate
- Encouraging individual to focus on personal health
- Boosting up the food safety efforts
The guidelines are set to benefit the UAE community in the following ways:
- Bringing down the cost of medical treatments in the country
- Improving healthcare
- Achieving required food safety
- Enhancing the quality of life and sustainability
Five Guides
The guidelines were developed by taking several regional as well as global food guidelines into consideration. It consists of five guides to help individuals and the health agencies such as:
- First Guide – Focuses on healthy living system by promoting healthy food and physical activities.
- Second Guide – Focuses on ensuring healthy food intakes
- Third Guide – Focuses on calorie intake
- Fourth Guide – Focuses on adapting healthy food patterns
- Fifth Guide – Focuses on food safety
Overall, the proposed guidelines are to improve the nutritional status of the country. Implementation of these guidelines are targeted at minimizing the treatment costs, enhancing the safety and quality of life, and strengthening the legal framework of nutritional products. With the implementation date of the guidelines is yet to be announced, it is time for food product manufacturers aiming for UAE market-entry to ensure aligning their practices with regional compliance requirements. Stay informed. Stay compliant.
