Health inspectors to check Dubai chewy cookies, other baked goods for food safety
Published: 27 Jan. 2026, 17:38
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- SHIN MIN-HEE
- [email protected]
![Dubai chewy cookies, prepared as thank-you gifts to blood donors, sit on display at a blood donation center in Busan on Jan. 23. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/01/27/f133fd07-1ec7-44d6-851f-e4a9d938aee5.jpg)
Dubai chewy cookies, prepared as thank-you gifts to blood donors, sit on display at a blood donation center in Busan on Jan. 23. [YONHAP]
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety will be putting the viral Dubai chewy cookies — as well as a number of other baked goods — under the microscope in an upcoming hygiene inspection.
Some 3,600 food service establishments will be visited by health inspectors from 17 local governments between Feb. 2 and 17, the ministry said Tuesday. The target businesses are bakeries that also offer delivery services and unmanned ice cream shops that haven’t been inspected recently or have a history of violating the Food Sanitation Act.
The inspections will assess whether establishments comply with facility standards, handle ingredients and kitchen spaces hygienically and ensure that workers have undergone required health checkups.
Authorities will also randomly collect around 100 samples of prepared foods, which would include Dubai chewy cookies, to test for foodborne pathogens.
The Dubai chewy cookies, known by their Korean moniker Dujjonku — a portmanteau of “Dubai” and the Korean words for “chewy” and “cookie” — are made from a kadayif (shredded Middle Eastern phyllo dough strands) and pistachio spread, encased in a round, chocolate-dusted marshmallow shell.
The ministry has been regularly conducting sanitary inspections on delivery food service establishments since 2021. Last year, the ministry inspected 19,149 businesses and found violations at 186, about 1 percent of the total. The most common offenses were failure to conduct employee health checkups and breaches of hygiene standards, such as not wearing hairnets or masks.
BY SHIN MIN-HEE [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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