They stressed the need to tighten control over restaurants that sell "healthy meals"

Citizens demand a law that sets the value of "calories" for consumers' meals

NBK Health Warns of Health and Economic Risks of Fast Food From the source

Citizens have proposed that the state introduce a federal bill that would require consumers to limit the calorie value of their daily diets, to oblige them to maintain their health.

They also called during a virtual panel discussion organized by the Health and Environmental Affairs Committee of the Federal National Council under the title "The safety of our food for the health of our bodies", to tighten control over restaurants that publish promotional advertisements, stating that they are "healthy restaurants", and claim that they undertake the tasks of providing healthy meals "with low calories", to verify the validity of what they claim, while the parliamentary committee warned of the health and economic risks of fast food known as "fast food".

The Second Vice President of the Council, Chairperson of the Committee, Naema Abdullah Al-Sharhan, opened the panel discussion with a speech in which she warned of the dangers of eating fast and unhealthy food «fast food» on society, for its great role in increasing the rates of people with diabetes, which reflects negatively on the economies of countries that are forced to pay huge funds from their budgets to support the health sector and treat patients, whether at home or by sending them on missions for treatment abroad.

Al-Sharhan stressed that all the proposals and recommendations that will be agreed upon by the participants in the seminar will be reformulated, in preparation for their presentation and discussions under the dome of the parliament with representatives of the federal government.

During the panel discussion, participants addressed a number of challenges facing the public health safety system, including the weak role played by local institutions in disseminating the concepts and practices of the importance of adopting healthy food, and the low number of inspectors on mobile food trucks and food delivery companies, while stressing the importance of changing the culture and community practices in dealing with food.

They also touched on the danger of the country's markets receiving products similar to the original products, such as "cheese-like" products and other new food products, most of which consist of natural materials up to 20% only, which requires identifying their composition more accurately and whether they are healthy or have side effects.

The participants called for the need to unify the procedures for implementing food control and safety programs at the state level, to include the unification of the regulatory system among the UAE.

All to ensure that the differences prescribed for each emirate are avoided from the other, stressing the need to develop specific standards and specifications that unify the mechanisms of work of food control laboratories and foods entering through the various border crossings of the country.

The participants in the seminar also called for tightening control over restaurants that publish promotional advertisements stating that they are "healthy restaurants" and claim that they undertake the tasks of providing healthy meals "with low calories", to ensure the validity of what they claim, especially since most of them use websites and electronic platforms to learn how to prepare these meals, and then present them to customers as healthy meals, without a reference body responsible for ensuring that they comply with the standards.

The participants in the workshop also proposed the development of a mechanism under which food establishments are obliged to appoint a health supervisor or food safety officer, who is qualified and trained, under the supervision of a team of experts and specialists, in addition to the mandatory that these establishments, when selecting their staff, take into account the knowledge of their employees in reading and writing skills, which contributes to their involvement in awareness programs organized by the concerned authorities and thus enhance their culture of food safety.

The participants also demanded that the concerned government agencies undertake the tasks of establishing a website for food safety that serves as a "reference" in which legislation and the differences between the work regulations adopted in each emirate are clarified, as well as food safety requirements and awareness leaflets.

They also pointed to the importance of promoting the concepts of nutritional health awareness among school students, by increasing the scientific dose, and increasing it in educational education materials and curricula, in addition to enacting a mandatory law to apply the value of calories, so that the consumer knows how many calories he eats on a daily basis, and spreading awareness among those about to get married of the importance of nutrition, especially for pregnant women.

5 Axis

The Health and Environmental Affairs Committee of the Federal National Council discussed the topic of "Our Food Safety for the Health of Our Bodies" from five main axes, including the challenges facing legislation and strategies concerned with enhancing food safety in the country, spreading awareness of the importance of promoting a culture of food safety among members of society, the efforts of local authorities in promoting the concept of food safety through their community initiatives, the mechanisms proposed in the Year of Sustainability to promote the concept of healthy and safe food, and the proposed initiatives to encourage national agriculture that rely on standards Food safety.