My School Food AI Chatbot Ghalia: In Dubai’s ongoing effort to modernise public services, school canteens are the newest space undergoing a digital overhaul. The municipality has rolled out a combined platform – My School Food and an AI assistant named Ghalia – to organise how meals are evaluated and approved across more than 500 schools in the city.
A Digital Nutrition Gatekeeper
Instead of checking menus manually or reviewing long email threads from school operators, the new system acts as a single checkpoint.
Canteens upload their weekly plans, and Ghalia, the chatbot built into the platform, reviews the meals using predefined nutrition criteria.
The process feels closer to running a menu through a “digital dietitian” than a compliance tool.
What the System Actually Does
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Highlights meals that don’t match Dubai’s child-nutrition rules
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Provides suggestions for better ingredient choices
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Maintains one central rulebook for all schools
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Gives administrators instant reports instead of waiting for inspections
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Creates an archive of approved meal plans for future audits
A Step Toward Long-Term Food Quality Reform
For parents, this move means more predictability. Whether a child is in a public school or a private institution, the same nutritional standards are expected to apply.
For school teams, it reduces the guesswork and paperwork that previously surrounded menu approvals.
Broader Outcomes Expected
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Greater meal consistency from school to school
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Quicker correction of unhealthy menu items
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Better monitoring of food-safety compliance
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Stronger data for improving future nutrition policies
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Support for the UAE’s wider child-wellbeing strategy
Dubai’s adoption of this AI-backed system mirrors an international trend where governments use AI-driven business solutions to optimise everyday public services – part of the larger shift shaping the future of Artificial Intelligence in governance.
Dubai Municipality uses My School Food + AI chatbot Ghalia to standardise school menus and audits across 500+ institutions