UAE: Residents to get high quality food imports ‘faster, cheaper’ with Dubai Municipality’s new Green Channel

UAE: Residents to get high quality food imports ‘faster, cheaper’ with Dubai Municipality’s new Green Channel

Dubai: Residents are set to get high quality food imports to Dubai faster and cheaper with the emirate launching a ‘Green Channel’ for import companies. Dubai Municipality on Tuesday said the new initiative, that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning techniques, will ensure safe and high quality foods from reputed companies and countries of origin are released directly to the market without causing delays at the ports. According to food safety experts, this will bring down import time and operational cost, thereby reducing cost of food products. The move is also expected to push food importing businesses to achieve higher safety standards to enter the Green Channel. Dawood Al Hajri, director-general of Dubai Municipality, announced the launch of the initiative during the opening ceremony of the 16th Dubai International Food Safety Conference on Tuesday. “Last year, we announced Dubai Municipality’s plan that aims at facilitating the importation of food using AI to elevate safety. We now have the ‘Green Channel’ for the food businesses that fulfilled the criteria in the first phase,” said Al Hajri. Earlier, Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, inaugurated the three-day conference at the Dubai International Convention Centre. The minister highlighted