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Dubai Municipality starts school food safety clubs

Dubai - The recent initiative aims to create awareness on food safety and healthy eating habits among the children

The Dubai Municipality has commenced an innovative food safety awareness programme for school children by forming "Healthy to Happy School" clubs in eight schools.
The recent initiative aims to create awareness on food safety and healthy eating habits among the children. Schools are required to form a group of 15 dedicated students for the Healthy to Happy school clubs that will work on initiatives and ideas to reduce childhood obesity and food borne illness in the region along with their teachers and school managements.
"The Food Safety Department of the Dubai Municipality takes all the measures to ensure food safety along the food chain from farm to table. We aim to educate both parents and children about healthy eating and proper food handling practices which will compliment nutritional eating and food safety at the same time," said Noura Abdulla Al Shamsi, head of food permits and applied nutrition section in the Food Safety Department.
The schools that have already initiated Healthy to Happy school clubs in the first phase of the programme include Central High School, The City School Dubai, Gems Winchester School, New Indian Model School, Gulf Indian High School, Gems Modern Academy, Al Sadiq Islamic School and American School of Creative Science. The Food Safety Awareness team of Dubai Municipality's Food Safety Department will visit more schools to encourage them to form similar clubs.
The clubs were given training on food safety, nutrition, portion size, food waste reduction, cooking skills and healthy lunch box preparation during a special workshop held at Children City. These clubs will now start working on creating awareness through programs and initiatives to improve the food safety and nutrition culture in their schools.
The Healthy to Happy school clubs will serve as a representative of the school to Dubai Municipality's Food Safety Department, and they will be notified on different trends to improve their knowledge and create more awareness in their schools and homes.
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