A Practical Guide to Recipe Data, Nutrition Analysis and Healthy Menu Preparation in Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi’s hospitality industry is entering an important new phase in healthy menu development.
Under DCT Abu Dhabi Circular No. 7/2026 – Implementation of Mandatory Minimum Healthy Food Options in Hotel Restaurant Menus, applicable hotel restaurants and food & beverage outlets are required to provide minimum healthy options, subject to the specified exclusions. For adult menus, at least one healthy option must be offered within each menu category, while at least 50% of items on children’s menus must be healthy options in line with the approved SEHHI criteria.
The circular took effect on 1 July 2026, with a three-month implementation grace period, and full compliance and enforcement beginning 1 October 2026.
For hotel operators, one of the most important steps is therefore not simply creating new “healthy” dishes. It is making sure the underlying recipe and nutritional data is accurate and ready for assessment.
This is where proper recipe preparation becomes critical.
What is SEHHI?
SEHHI is Abu Dhabi’s healthy food programme developed by the Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre (ADPHC).
The SEHHI Healthy Menus programme is designed to identify healthier food choices. ADPHC describes SEHHI-labelled foods as having lower levels of fat, sugar and salt and higher fibre compared with other foods of the same type.
ADPHC’s programme uses a nutritional classification process that considers factors including calories, total fat, saturated and trans fats, sugar, salt and fibre. ADPHC has also described a digital process through which food establishments can provide food-item information for nutritional analysis and identification of items that meet SEHHI criteria.
This means that the quality of the recipe information supplied by a hotel matters.
Step 1: Start With the Actual Recipe
The first step is to make sure the recipe being assessed is the recipe that is actually prepared and served.
This sounds obvious, but it can be one of the biggest challenges in hospitality.
A hotel may have:
- A recipe in its costing system
- A recipe in its chef’s recipe book• A recipe in a standard operating procedure
- A recipe used by the kitchen
- A recipe that has evolved over time
These versions may not always be identical.
For example, a recipe may specify 10 g of oil while the kitchen routinely uses 20 g.
A sauce may be listed as 50 g but chefs may add it “to taste.”
A garnish, dressing or cheese topping may not even appear on the original recipe card.
For SEHHI assessment, the starting point should therefore be a verified production recipe.
Ask your culinary team:
What exactly goes into this dish when it reaches the guest?
That is the recipe that needs to be analysed.
Step 2: Standardise Every Ingredient
Avoid vague measurements wherever possible.
Measurements such as:
- 1 spoon
- 1 handful
- Some sauce
- As required
- To taste
- 1 piece
- Small amount
are difficult to analyse consistently.
Instead, use measurable quantities:
- 10 g olive oil
- 25 g dressing
- 5 g salt
- 40 g cheese
- 120 g chicken
- 150 g cooked rice
Standardisation improves not only nutrition analysis but also recipe costing, allergen analysis, carbon footprint calculations and portion consistency.
Step 3: Define the Serving Size
A nutrition calculation is only meaningful when the serving size is clearly defined.
For every recipe, establish:
Total recipe yield → Number of portions → Portion weight
For example:
Total prepared recipe: 2.4 kg
Number of portions: 12
Portion size: 200 g
This distinction becomes particularly important for hotel restaurants, where the same recipe may be prepared in different batch sizes.
The recipe should be scalable while maintaining the same ingredient ratios.
Step 4: Record Ingredients Before Cooking and After Cooking
Hotels should distinguish between ingredient input weights and final cooked yield.
Cooking can change the weight of ingredients through:
- Water loss
- Water absorption
- Evaporation
- Fat absorption
- Trimming
- Cooking losses
For example, 1 kg of raw meat will not necessarily produce 1 kg of cooked meat.
Similarly, rice, pasta and grains can increase significantly in weight after absorbing water.
Recording yield allows nutrition calculations to be connected correctly to the final serving.
Step 5: Don’t Forget the “Small” Ingredients
Some of the biggest data problems come from ingredients that appear insignificant.
Examples include:
- Cooking oils
- Butter
- Cheese
- Sauces
- Dressings
- Salt
- Sugar
- Nuts and seeds
- Garnishes
A small amount of an ingredient can still materially affect the nutritional composition of a dish.
For example, oils can significantly increase total fat and calories, while sauces and dressings can contribute meaningful amounts of sugar, salt and fat.
Therefore, every ingredient that contributes to the finished dish should be captured.
Step 6: Review Processed and Purchased Ingredients
Not every ingredient used by a hotel kitchen is a raw commodity.
Many recipes contain commercially prepared products such as:
- Mayonnaise
- Stocks
- Sauces
- Cheese
- Bread
- Tortillas
- Dressings
- Spice blends
- Ready-to-use marinades
- Processed meats
These products can have substantially different nutritional profiles depending on the brand and formulation.
Where possible, hotels should maintain accurate information for the actual product being used.
Ingredient substitution should also trigger a recipe review.
Step 7: Analyse the Nutrition Profile
Once the recipe is standardised, its nutritional composition can be calculated.
Depending on the analysis requirements, this may include:• Energy
- Protein
- Total fat
- Saturated fat
- Carbohydrates
- Sugars
- Fibre
- Sodium/salt
- Vitamins
- Minerals
- Other relevant nutrients
ADPHC has stated that its SEHHI classification considers nutritional factors including calories, total fats, saturated and trans fats, sugar, salt and fibre.
The objective isn’t simply to produce a nutrition report.
It is to create reliable nutritional data that can be used to assess and improve the recipe.
Step 8: Identify Recipes That Could Become Healthy Options
Once the nutrition profile is available, hotels can begin identifying suitable candidates.
A useful approach is to divide recipes into three groups:
Potential Healthy Options
Recipes that appear suitable for assessment against the applicable SEHHI criteria.
Recipes Requiring Reformulation
Recipes that have potential but may require changes to ingredients, quantities, cooking
methods or portion sizes.
Recipes Unlikely to Qualify
Recipes where significant reformulation may be required.
This allows culinary teams to focus their time where it can have the greatest impact.
Step 9: Reformulate Without Losing the Dish
Healthy recipe development does not have to mean completely redesigning a dish.
In many cases, relatively targeted changes can improve the nutritional profile.
For example:
Instead of:
Deep-frying → Baking, grilling or roasting
High-fat dressing → Lighter dressing
Large quantities of butter → Controlled quantities of oil or other suitable alternatives
High-sugar sauce → Reduced-sugar formulation
Heavy cream-based preparation → Alternative preparation where appropriate
High-salt seasoning → Herbs, spices and other flavour-building techniques
The objective should be to balance nutrition, culinary quality, guest expectations and operational practicality.
Step 10: Pay Particular Attention to Children’s Menus
Children’s menus deserve a separate review.
DCT Circular No. 7/2026 requires applicable establishments to ensure that at least 50% of children’s menu items are healthy options in line with approved SEHHI criteria. The requirement applies to children’s menus made available to guests. The circular also allows, where applicable, healthy adult menu items to be adapted into smaller, child-appropriate portions to support compliance.
Hotels should therefore create a specific children’s-menu assessment rather than assuming that adult-menu analysis automatically covers the requirement.
Step 11: Map Healthy Options Across the Menu
Finding healthy recipes is only part of the process.
The hotel also needs to understand where those recipes sit within the menu.
For example:
This type of menu-level analysis helps management and culinary teams immediately identify gaps.
Step 12: Prepare Your Documentation
DCT’s Circular No. 7/2026 states that establishments may be required to submit menus and provide recipes and nutritional information for assessment by ADPHC, where applicable.
Hotels should therefore maintain an organised documentation package containing, as appropriate:
- Current recipe cards
- Ingredient quantities
- Serving sizes
- Recipe yields
- Nutrition analysis
- Supporting ingredient information
- Healthy-menu assessment records
- Reformulation history
- Final menu versions
Good documentation also makes future menu updates significantly easier.
Step 13: Create a Change-Control Process
One of the most important aspects of the new requirement is that menu compliance isn’t necessarily a one-time exercise.
DCT states that menus are expected to change over time and that establishments must continue to meet the required minimum number of SEHHI-compliant options when items are added or replaced. It also states that changes to previously approved healthy menu items must be re-submitted for validation to ensure continued compliance.
This means hotels should establish a simple rule:
No significant recipe change without a nutritional review.
Changing an ingredient, supplier, portion size, sauce or cooking method could alter the nutritional profile of a previously assessed dish.
How TGC Can Support Hotels
Preparing hundreds of hotel recipes for nutritional assessment can be a significant undertaking. At TouchPoint Gourmet Consultants (TGC), we combine food science and recipe analytics to help hospitality businesses build structured nutritional data for their menus.
Our services can include:
Recipe Standardisation
Converting kitchen recipes into structured, measurable recipe data.
Nutrition Analysis
Calculating detailed nutritional information for recipes and food products.
Healthy Recipe Assessment
Identifying recipes that may be suitable for healthy-menu programmes and highlighting areas requiring review.
Recipe Reformulation Support
Working with culinary teams to explore nutritional improvements while maintaining the intended character of the dish.
Children’s Menu Assessment
Reviewing children’s menus against applicable healthy-menu requirements.
Menu-Level Analytics
Mapping healthy options across menu categories and identifying gaps.
Documentation
Producing structured recipe and nutrition reports to support internal review and regulatory assessment processes.
From Recipe Cards to Healthy Menus
The SEHHI requirements represent an important shift in how hotels approach menu development.
The process is no longer simply:
Create a healthy dish → Put it on the menu.
Instead, hotels need a more structured approach:
Recipe → Standardise → Analyse → Assess → Reformulate → Validate → Document → Monitor
The better the recipe data, the stronger the foundation for nutritional assessment.
For hotel groups managing multiple properties, restaurants and thousands of recipes, this can become a significant data-management challenge.
But it can also become an opportunity.
By building structured recipe intelligence, hotels can simultaneously improve:Nutrition transparency
- Recipe consistency
- Menu development
- Allergen management
- Cost control
- Sustainability analysis
- Operational readiness
The Bottom Line
Preparing for SEHHI assessment starts long before a dish reaches the menu.
It starts with the recipe.
- Accurate ingredients.
- Accurate quantities.
- Accurate yields.
- Accurate portions.
- Accurate nutritional data.
Because you cannot reliably assess a recipe if you don’t first know exactly what is in it.
At TouchPoint Gourmet Consultants, we help hotels turn recipe data into actionable food intelligence—supporting healthier menu development and a more structured approach to SEHHI readiness.
Better recipe data. Better nutritional decisions. Healthier menus.
Important Note
SEHHI criteria, DCT requirements, applicability, exemptions, validation procedures and implementation requirements may be updated by the relevant Abu Dhabi authorities. Hotels should always refer to the latest official DCT Abu Dhabi and ADPHC guidance. TGC’s services are intended to support recipe analysis, nutritional assessment, documentation and preparation; TGC does not represent itself as the regulatory authority or as providing official SEHHI approval unless separately authorised to do so.