UAE is not only famous for its high rising buildings and strong business structure, but it has also gained good name for providing one of the best health and medical facilities to its citizens, residents and tourists alike. It is the reason that UAE has been transformed into the region’s best destination for medical tourism. But the most important thing regarding policies of the government of UAE is that it always tries to further improve the facilities it provides to its citizens and residents. A recent example is the launch of new federal food registration portal – ZAD.
Every year, large numbers of food products are registered in Dubai and other emirates of UAE. It is due to favorable conditions for investment in food and beverages industries in UAE. Previously, different emirates had their local systems for registration of food products in their respective emirates. It was a difficult process for both traders and consumers as traders were required to register their products separately in all emirates if they want to transport their products from one emirate to others. On the other hand, it was not possible for consumers to check status and security of all food products at a single place.
In order to address these problems, the government of UAE and the emirate of Dubai decided to launch a federal portal for registration of food products in Dubai and UAE. For this purpose, ZAD was launched by the UAE’s Ministry of Climate Change & Environment (MOCCE) in cooperation with Dubai Municipality (DM) in 2018. Dubai Municipality has already integrated its food portal FIRS (Food Import & Re-export System) with ZAD. It has more than 60,000 edible products. After the launch of this federal portal, now it has become mandatory for all registered companies to register all their food products in ZAD before their launch (import, export and sale) in any part of UAE.
The launch of this new comprehensive system will benefit all concerned parties (traders, consumers and government). Now, trading companies are not required to register and clear their food products from different emirates separately. After approval of the food product by any food control body, it will be registered on this federal portal and this will directly be accepted by food control authorities in all emirates of UAE. It is also expected that lab tests for these ZAD-registered food products will also not be required in different emirates and a single test will be sufficient for these products to make their place in the entire UAE market.
This new system will benefit end consumers as well. The detail of products registered in ZAD will be available for consumers so that they can inspect this product comprehensively. These consumers can easily check ingredients and other important components in these goods that will allow them to choose their required product without any problem.
In the end, this federal portal is also important for government for better organization of products and eradication of evil practices. This online system will reduce time for import of food in UAE as well as transport of food products from one emirate to other that will minimize illegal trade of these products. Currently, the time taken for food shipment from one emirate to another is 15 days. But it is expected that the new system will reduce this duration to just a single day. This will also reduce the spending on refrigeration and storage of these food products.
This system is also helpful in handling banned food items. List of these items will be issued through ZAD after which it will be easier for authorities to take action against them conveniently and effectively on country-wide level. These products will not be imported to UAE that will ultimately save unnecessary expenditure on inspection of these products by different emirates.
Another important job handed over to ZAD is to provide information regarding Islamic standards of different food products in UAE. For this purpose, this federal food portal will list down all the Halal certification and accreditation bodies approved by the relevant Emirati department ESMA (Emirates Authority for Standardization & Metrology). Currently, ESMA has approved 41 such bodies from 20 countries. This will allow the consumers to check the Halal certificate of any food product and the authority that approved Halal certificate to that product. This will cover all food products and they will not be required to search internet for this purpose.
This detailed information regarding ZAD clearly defines the function of this online food portal and its importance in dealing the issues related to food product registration in Dubai and other emirates of UAE. This system will bring revolutionary changes in registering all types of food products in any part of UAE. This has made things easier for trading companies, consumers and officials and will eradicate several malpractices. If you want to get detailed information for any type of food product you want to register in UAE, you can contact Riz & Mona Consultancy for better understanding and practical assistance.
