Color-coding for food? This might sound amusing to most of you. Some people would think it's outrageous when they try to speculate how this can be done, but it all boils down to the color combination and presentation on the plates. 

Who does this? According to Gulf News, this coding system will be rolled out in Dubai Municipality early next year. The municipality officer said they want to use this system to check and grade the level of food safety and hygiene in all of their food shops.

The new system will check about 14,000 food shops in Dubai which includes cafeterias, catering companies, restaurants and food manufacturers. Bobby Krishna, principal food inspection officer at Dubai Municipality said that by the January of 2016, all food shops will have inspection ratings on display for customers to see. The system aims to increase transparency and make sure of the quality of food establishments.

This is the first time that a color-coded system will be implemented and that this initiative can complement the role of 70 food inspectors whose main responsibility is to monitor the hygiene standards in every food establishment in the country.

The head of the Food Inspection Section, Sultan Ali AL Taher said that the color-coding system of the food shops will be the country's newest system which will aim to improve the food quality standards. The colored cards will be segregated into 5 different colors: green, light green, yellow, red and white. Each color corresponds to a certain point that grades the standard of each food establishment.

Dubai Municipality's ratings will award a green card to eateries that score 95 and above, while a light green card will indicate a satisfactory rating that records less than five minor violations - equivalent to a rating from 90 to 94. A yellow card indicating a conditional pass will be issued when there is either one major violation or a maximum of seven minor violations, which will be scored from 75 to 89.

Currently, approximately 200 outlets have been awarded the A-grade green cards, which reflect their high rating with no records of violations during routine municipal inspections.