How to register a food product in the United Arab Emirates?

Any imported food product sold in the United Arab Emirates must be registered with the Emirati authorities.

First and foremost, the company must be registered with DED and have a license including the “trading” activity. Without this, it will be impossible to import anything into Dubai.

Merritt Middle East handles your company’s registration with DED, as well as product registration on the platform.

As for the procedure, everything is done online:

The steps

Here are the main steps of the procedure:

a. First, you will need to upload a photo of the food product and its label;

b. The food product label must be in English and Arabic;

c. You will then need to submit samples of each product to the authorities’ laboratory.

In accordance with the requirements of Dubai Customs and the inspection needs of Dubai Municipality.

The fees to expect are as follows:

  • Food label approval: 10 AED (per label)
  • Registration of food products without evaluation: Free
  • Food product registration and label evaluation: 10 AED
  • Authority fees (Knowledge & Innovation Fees): 20 AED

In addition to setting up your company, our team can also assist you with importing and registering your food products in Dubai (starting from AED 2000).