Made in Dubai Since 1981: Inside the Modernfood Factory Behind Papy Snacks and Dubai Pofak
Some snacks taste like childhood. For many across the UAE, that taste comes from a factory in Al Garhoud, Dubai, where Modernfood has been producing oven-baked chips and snacks since 1981. Four decades on, the names Papy Snacks and Dubai Pofak still sit on supermarket shelves, lunchboxes and nostalgia-fuelled social media posts in equal measure.
This is the story of how a single Dubai factory grew into a manufacturer whose products now travel across the GCC, the wider Middle East, Africa and Australia, and why, in a market increasingly shaped by global snack brands, a local name with a 1981 start date still matters.
The Modernfood Factory: A Dubai Institution
Modernfood's factory in Al Garhoud began producing snacks in 1981, at a time when the UAE's food manufacturing sector was still taking shape. The company built its early reputation on oven-baked corn and potato snacks, made to recipes it has used for decades.
From those beginnings as a local supplier, Modernfood expanded into a manufacturer stocked across three continents: the GCC, the wider Middle East, Africa and Australia. The growth has not come at the expense of how the products are made. The factory still bakes rather than fries, a production choice that uses considerably less oil and has become a defining feature of the brand.
Quality control has scaled alongside distribution. The facility is certified to ISO 22000 and operates under HACCP principles, standards that matter as much to a supermarket buyer in Dubai as they do to an importer in Nairobi or Perth.
The Birth of Papy Snacks: Nostalgia Meets Quality
Papy Snacks is one of Modernfood's longest-standing products: oven-baked corn and potato rings, lightly salted for a clean, even crunch. There is no heavy seasoning here, no attempt to chase the boldest flavour on the shelf. Papy Snacks has instead built its following on consistency: the same straightforward, satisfying bite that generations of UAE consumers have grown up with.
That simplicity is also what makes Papy Snacks relevant to today's shopper. The product is certified vegan, which means a snack built on a decades-old recipe now sits comfortably on a plant-based shopping list without any reformulation of what made it popular in the first place.
For trade buyers, Papy Snacks occupies a specific role in a snack range: the mild, crowd-pleasing option that balances out bolder, spicier SKUs on the same shelf. It is also supplied through wholesale channels, making it a straightforward addition for distributors building out a category reset or new retail partnership.
Dubai Pofak: Bringing Global Flavours Home
Dubai Pofak carries a different kind of story. The brand was relaunched after nearly two and a half decades off UAE shelves, a gap long enough that its return has registered as genuine news among shoppers who remember it from the 1990s, and a discovery for a younger generation encountering it for the first time.
The product itself is a bold, cheesy, oven-baked snack with a soft, crunchy bite, now certified vegan. A hotter sibling, Dubai Pofak Chilli Cheeze, layers a chilli and hot sauce kick over that same cheese base, giving the range a mild-to-medium spread within one recognisable name.
The appeal here runs in two directions at once. Older consumers are drawn back by memory; newer consumers are drawn in by a certified vegan product that still delivers an indulgent, cheesy flavour. Few snack relaunches manage both at the same time.
Behind the Scenes: Modern Manufacturing Standards
None of this nostalgia or flavour development happens without consistent production standards behind it. The factory's oven-baking process is central to Modernfood's output across every product line, with chips and snacks baked rather than fried, for a lighter result with less oil.
Food safety sits on top of that process. ISO 22000 certification and HACCP compliance apply across the facility, not as a marketing claim but as the operational framework that governs how ingredients are sourced, handled, and tracked. For a trade buyer evaluating a new supplier, these two certifications are usually the first thing checked, and the ones that determine whether a product can move into modern trade, HORECA or export channels at all.
Sustainable practice runs alongside these standards, reflecting a broader shift in how manufacturers are expected to operate: not as an add-on, but as part of what "quality" now means to retailers and consumers alike.
Wholesale and B2B Excellence
Modernfood supplies across a wide span of trade channels: retail, wholesale, foodservice, HORECA, modern trade, convenience and export. That range allows the factory to work with supermarkets and groceries, hotel and restaurant operators, schools, and distributors across the UAE and beyond.
Private label and contract manufacturing capabilities extend this further, giving retailers the option to carry a product under their own name while relying on the same ISO 22000 and HACCP-certified production behind it.
Export has become a significant part of the business. Products made in Al Garhoud now reach importers across the GCC, the wider Middle East, Africa and Australia, a reach that started with a single Dubai factory and has grown one market at a time.
The Healthy Snacking Evolution
Demand for "healthier" snacking has reshaped expectations across the category, and Modernfood's response sits in how its products are made rather than in a separate health-focused sub-range. Oven-baking, applied across the board, already reduces oil compared with frying. Vegan certification on both Papy Snacks and Dubai Pofak gives shoppers a plant-based option without sacrificing the flavour that built each brand's following.
This is less a pivot towards wellness than a recognition that quality ingredients and transparent certification, not reformulated "diet" products, are what today's shoppers are actually asking for. Indulgence and a better-for-you profile are not treated as opposites here; they sit on the same shelf, under the same certifications.
Why Modernfood's Al Garhoud Factory Matters Today
Local manufacturing carries weight in Dubai's economy beyond the products themselves. Every carton that leaves the Al Garhoud factory represents UAE-based production, UAE-based jobs, and a supply chain that does not depend on a single overseas source.
Heritage and innovation sit together rather than in competition. A factory running since 1981 has kept its original recipes in place while adding vegan certification, export markets, and modern food safety standards most consumers never see but every retailer checks. That combination of consistency on the outside and continual certification and process improvement underneath is what has kept Modernfood's products on shelves for more than four decades.
A Legacy Worth Continuing
Modernfood's Al Garhoud factory has spent over forty years doing one thing consistently: making oven-baked snacks the same honest way, batch after batch. Papy Snacks and Dubai Pofak are the clearest proof of that consistency: one built on quiet reliability, the other on a comeback few predicted.
For trade buyers evaluating a UAE-made supplier, the combination of ISO 22000 and HACCP certification, export reach across three continents, and a 1981 founding date is not a marketing pitch. It is a track record. For consumers, it is simpler still: a snack that has tasted the same, and been made the same way, for longer than most shelves have existed.
To explore the full range or start a wholesale conversation, enquire directly with Modernfood's trade team.