UAE tightens school food rules

UAE authorities have rolled out a nationwide school nutrition guide that bans sugary drinks, fried foods, sweets, chocolate products, processed meats, tea and coffee across educational institutions, widening a health drive that officials say is aimed at improving children’s diets, sharpening concentration in class and cutting obesity. The framework applies across public, private, independent and vocational schools, as well as centres for People of Determination, and sets common standards for canteens, food suppliers and campus food handling.

The new National Guide for Food and Beverages in the School Environment sets out a structured system for what may be sold, served or promoted on school premises. It requires alignment between federal and local authorities, gives each emirate responsibility for monitoring and inspection, and allows parents access to canteen menus while obliging schools to document food-related complaints and the action taken. Officials have presented the measure as part of a wider push to steer children towards age-appropriate, nutritionally balanced meals that support both physical growth and cognitive development.

Items now barred under the national framework include soft drinks, energy drinks and other sugary beverages, tea and coffee, hard and soft candies, gum and lollipops, chocolate and chocolate-coated biscuits, fried foods such as chips and fries, cakes and doughnuts, processed meats including mortadella and sausages, and nut-based products because of allergy risks. The breadth of the prohibited list signals that the policy is not limited to canteen menus alone but is intended to shape the wider food environment children encounter during the school day.

The federal move builds on steps already introduced in Abu Dhabi, where the Department of Education and Knowledge’s Food and Nutrition Policy took effect from the 2024/25 academic year, with full compliance due in the 2025/26 year. That policy requires schools to follow the Abu Dhabi Guideline for Unified School Nutrition and Food Safety and reinforces prohibition of “Red List” items during school events and food service operations. By extending a common standard across the country, the national guide appears to bring local experiments in tighter school food oversight into a broader UAE-wide framework.

Health officials have strong grounds for treating the issue as more than a canteen-management exercise. The Ministry of Health and Prevention said in its National Health Survey, published in late 2025, that 16.1 per cent of children aged six to 17 were living with obesity. That figure sat alongside concerns over vitamin D deficiency and broader nutritional imbalances, reinforcing the case for intervention in places where children spend much of their day. Earlier ministry statements on the national programme to combat obesity in children and adolescents had also cited school screening data showing obesity rates of 17.3 per cent among children and teenagers, underlining that the challenge has persisted across multiple reporting cycles.

There is also a behavioural and educational argument behind the policy. Nutrition specialists quoted in UAE reporting on Abu Dhabi’s school food crackdown said diets high in sugar and ultra-processed foods can affect attention, mood regulation and sleep, while healthier school food environments can support learning rather than undermine it. The national guide mirrors that thinking by explicitly linking balanced nutrition with concentration, memory and academic performance. It is, in effect, a public-health policy framed partly through the language of classroom outcomes.

Research emerging from Abu Dhabi points to why enforcement may prove complicated even when the direction of policy is clear. A 2026 study in Frontiers in Public Health found that children often preferred sweet or salty snacks because they were easy to finish at school, visually appealing and less troublesome to carry than home-cooked meals. It also found that short lunch breaks, storage concerns and the lack of reheating facilities could push pupils towards dry, processed snacks over healthier options. That suggests schools may need to do more than ban products if they want eating habits to shift in lasting ways.