The government of Dubai has assigned the duty of allowing the importation of foodstuff, and monitoring the labeling and testing of the products, to Dubai Municipality (DM) at the first instance while DM liaises with the Emirates Authority for Standardisation and Metrology (ESMA) in relation of the adopted relevant standardisation in the UAE. In this article we will shed a light on the labeling information which food companies need to know.

The consignee of foodstuff products should, in the first place, be registered at DM as an authorised foodstuff consignee through its electronic system, which is called the ‘Food Import and Re-Export System (FIRS program)'. The consignee should be a registered local company in the UAE trading under food trading activity or general trading activity.