Our Correspondent
Dubai carrier Emirates will be providing kosher meals in its flights from next year. Emirates Flight Catering (EKFC) is setting up a kosher food production facility called Kosher Arabia at the company’s headquarters in Dubai. The global catering company will start producing meals from the facility in January 2021.
Emirates already offers kosher options to travellers on flights, but these are sourced from overseas suppliers. Kosher Arabia will help the airline to upgrade its offerings and take control of the meal quality of its kosher dishes.
EKFC provides catering services to more than 100 airlines, so they will also be able to draw from the new division.
Apart from in-fight kosher options, EKFC will also explore avenues for opening kosher restaurants across Dubai and the GCC. It will provide kosher catering for hotels and events across the Gulf region, including for the Expo 2020 next year.
The facility is set to be certified by the Kashrut Division of the Orthodox Union and is being developed in partnership with CCL holdings and the South African Union of Orthodox Synagogues. The culinary team at EKFC will handle all food production while CCL Holdings will provide certification, menu support and assistance in sourcing particular foodstuffs.
EKFC, one of the largest catering operations in the world, prepared over 80 million meals last year.
