The Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) has prepared two awareness pavilions at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah and Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Airport in Madinah to implement its awareness programs to measure the awareness of pilgrims and provide instructions to ensure that they follow a healthy behavior from the moment of their arrival.

SFDA has increased the total number of languages it uses to provide information and educational advice to pilgrims to 12 of the most spoken languages among pilgrims, namely Arabic, English, French, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Malay, Bahasa (Indonesian), and Turkish. This year, it will use three new languages for the first time: Spanish, Russian and Chinese.

In its pavilions, SFDA provides printed, visual and audio awareness materials in the fields of food, medicine, medical devices and products, with the aim of educating pilgrims to ensure the safety of food and pharmaceutical products and medical devices.

As part of its role in Hajj, SFDA, in cooperation with the secretariats of Makkah and Madinah, organizes workshops to educate workers in food establishments and catering kitchens concerned with serving meals to pilgrims, with the aim of promoting correct practices in preparing meals and ensuring safe and sound meals according to the standard technical requirements.