Unilever joins Dubai Municipality for food safety campaign

Unilever Food Solutions, the food service division of Unilever, has partnered with the Dubai Municipality to promote food safety across Dubai.

With a clear understanding of the challenges that come with managing multi-national staff, the aim of the partnership was to make training and educational resources available in different languages to help restaurant management and chefs easily maintain the right hygiene standards in their operations.

“Addressing food safety is complex. Chefs across the region tell us that sometimes they are simply not able to give it appropriate attention in their kitchen, because they have no easy training materials, lack time and resources. So together with the Dubai Municipality, we have developed a free programme to reach over 4,000 restaurants with material that is easy to understand and access both via Dubai Municipality’s inspectors and our websites,” says Lucas Dollfuss, head of marketing, Unilever Food Solutions Middle East, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Unilever Food Solutions has made available a toolkit for restaurants, food outlets and street food joints to access. The toolkit includes free of charge posters which can be implemented in the kitchen and is available in three different languages.

“Our toolkit reflects not just current best practices but also easy to utilise tips and guidelines. Food safety is a major concern for both guests and operators. Independent research says that over 66% guests think quite often about hygiene at the restaurants they eat at. And 78% of chefs believe it is their responsibility, as well as all players in the food service industry, to ensure food safety standards are met,” adds Dollfuss.

Moreover, this campaign offers restaurants a free Dubai Municipality approved e-module, which acts as a powerful refresher training. This falls in line with the Dubai Municipality’s aim of becoming 100% digital by 2020 and supports the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, aiming to improve the health and hygiene of one billion people by 2020.

“The campaign’s success stems from addressing the concerns of all stakeholders – restaurant owners, guests and chefs, supporting the industry with the right material and ensuring the safety of diners. Finally, the campaign meets Dubai Municipality aims of ensuring health and safety while being entirely congruent with Unilever Sustainable Living Plan,” says Myriam Estanboulie, channel marketing manager, Unilever Food Solutions.