Dubai, February 2^nd, 2016 – Unilever Food Solutions, the food service division of Unilever, one of the world’s leading FMCG companies and owner of global brands such as Dove, Lifebuoy and Lipton – is raising the bar on food safety across Dubai in partnership with the Dubai Municipality through a robust food safety partnership initiative.

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 program to reach over 4,000 restaurants with material that is easy to understand and access both via Dubai Municipality’s inspectors and our websites” 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,” added 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, which aims 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,” Myriam Estanboulie, Channel Marketing Manager Unilever Food Solutions.

The groundwork for cooperation between Unilever Food Solutions and the Dubai Municipality was first laid on World Health Day in 2015. Since then, the campaign has spread to a multitude of outlets, cuisines and hospitality establishments.

“We are very pleased with the results that we are seeing for our food safety training initiative. While our inspector teams and round the clock vigilance has netted excellent results, we are aware that sustainable success involves private sector cooperation. It is only through strong collaborations like this we can raise awareness, build knowledge and motivate staff to fully understand and prevent food-borne hazard risks. This partnership combines digital means of easy learning with benefits for all stakeholders to make a genuine difference to health and wellbeing,” said Khalid Mohammad Sharif, Food Control Department Director, Dubai Municipality.

The overall campaign material includes multilingual kitchen signs and labels, as well as free online training module. To access simply visit the Sustainability section at www.ufs.com.