Who Is Required to Wear a Hairnet? Food Hygiene Rules in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Plus Healthcare and Cleanrooms

Anyone who handles unwrapped food, or works in a food preparation area, is required to cover their hair in both Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Saudi Arabia’s restaurant requirements say head hair must be tightly covered for workers preparing food, and the Dubai Food Code extends hair covering to anyone entering a food preparation or storage area, visitors included. Operating theatre staff and pharmaceutical cleanroom staff cover their hair too, under healthcare and GMP rules. If you are stocking a kitchen, plant or clinic, our range of medical caps and hair nets covers each of these uses.

The details differ by emirate, by ministry and by job, and those details decide who in your team needs a hairnet, who needs a beard cover too, and who can go without.

Who is required to wear a hairnet?

Here is what each rule says, side by side.

Rule	Who it covers	What must be covered	Beards
Saudi Arabia, Ministry of Municipalities and Housing, Restaurant Requirements (1446H/2025)	Workers who prepare food	Head hair and arms, tightly covered	No beard clause found
Saudi Arabia, SFDA Food Hygiene Requirements	Employees in food facilities (mobile and temporary premises chapter)	Suitable protective hair covers, plus gloves	Not mentioned
Dubai Municipality Food Code (2013)	Anyone handling food or entering a food preparation or storage area; visitors	Hair, with a clean hat or hairnet	Beard nets where required
Abu Dhabi, ADAFSA Code of Practice No. 29 (2019)	Food handlers	Protective clothing such as hairnets, gloves, masks	Beard covers listed
US FDA Food Code 2022 (reference)	Food employees, with listed exemptions	Hats, hair coverings or nets, clothing covering body hair	Beard restraints
Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene (1997 revision)	Food handlers	Head covering, with protective clothing and footwear	Not specified

Read across the rows and one pattern stands out. Every rule covers the people who prepare food. The differences are at the edges: visitors, front-of-house staff and beards.

What do Saudi Arabia’s rules require?

Two documents apply to most food businesses in the Kingdom.

The restaurant requirements. The Ministry of Municipalities and Housing’s Restaurant Requirements (اشتراطات المطاعم), issued in 1446H/2025, set out worker requirements in section 5.10. Item 12 states that head hair and arms must be tightly covered for workers who prepare food (“يجب تغطية شعر الراس والذراعين بإحكام، للعاملين في إعداد وتحضير الأغذية”). The same section makes protective clothing mandatory, and requires a mask covering the nose and mouth. Elsewhere the document says personal protective equipment, “such as head cover, gloves,” must be suitable for food preparation.

Note the word “tightly.” A loose cap pushed back on the head, with a fringe showing, does not meet it.

SFDA’s Food Hygiene Requirements. SFDA’s document has a general personal hygiene chapter requiring “suitable, clean and, where necessary, protective clothing.” The explicit hair clause sits in the chapter on movable and temporary premises (marquees, market stalls, mobile sales vehicles), which requires employees “to wear suitable protective hair covers and gloves.” Food trucks and event caterers should read that chapter closely.

We found no beard clause in either document. If your team includes bearded staff, a beard cover, or a hood with a built-in mask that handles hair and beard in one item, is a sensible addition to your HACCP plan.

What does the Dubai Food Code require?

Dubai’s rule is the broadest of the three. Section 5.3(b) of the Dubai Municipality Food Code reads: “In the course of handling food and for any person entering a food preparation or storage area, hair should be covered with a clean hat or hair net. Where required, beards should be completely covered with beard nets.”

“Any person entering” matters. A maintenance technician fixing an oven, a supplier checking stock in the cold store and a manager walking through the kitchen are all covered. Section 5.5 removes any doubt about guests: visitors “should observe the same hygiene as food handlers, including hand washing and hair restraint policies.” Keep a box of hairnets at the kitchen door, not in the staff locker room.

What about Abu Dhabi?

ADAFSA’s Code of Practice No. 29 of 2019, Food Hygiene for Retail Business, citing Regulation No. 6 of 2010, says food handlers “shall wear suitable, clean and protective clothing while handling food such as hair nets, gloves, masks, beard covers.” Its good-practice advice adds that long hair should be tied back and/or covered with a suitable head covering, “especially when handling unwrapped food.” ADAFSA updates its regulations and guidelines, so check the current versions that apply to your licence category.

Do waiters and cashiers have to wear hairnets?

Sometimes. The US FDA Food Code, which many international chains use as a benchmark, gives the clearest exemption list. Section 2-402.11 requires food employees to wear hair restraints, but “does not apply to FOOD EMPLOYEES such as counter staff who only serve BEVERAGES and wrapped or PACKAGED FOODS, hostesses, and wait staff if they present a minimal RISK of contaminating exposed FOOD.”

GCC rules are framed differently. Saudi Arabia’s restaurant rule targets workers who prepare food, so a cashier who never touches unwrapped food falls outside item 12. Dubai’s rule turns on handling food or entering a preparation or storage area, so a server who plates desserts or steps into the kitchen to collect orders is covered. When in doubt, cover. A hairnet costs a fraction of what a hair-in-food complaint does.

The FDA’s annex explains the reason behind all of these rules: a hair restraint “keeps dislodged hair from ending up in the food and may deter employees from touching their hair.”

Hairnet, bouffant cap or mob cap: which should you buy?

Regulations ask for hair to be covered; they rarely specify how. Choose by hair length, heat and the coverage your HACCP plan asks for.

Product	Best for	Notes
Nylon mesh hairnet	Hot kitchens, bakeries, food lines, short or tied-back hair	Fine, food-grade mesh; very breathable; one size 18–24 inches
Bouffant cap	Long or thick hair, food plants, pharma packing	Pleated PP spunbond, 10–21 gsm, full elastic edge
Mob (clip) cap	High-volume daily issue, visitors	PP spun 12 gsm, single or double elastic
Surgeon cap	Operating theatres, dental and clinic procedures	Close-fitting tie-back, PP or SMS
Balaclava hood	Bearded staff, cleanrooms	Covers head, neck and shoulders with a built-in 2-ply mask

Do healthcare and cleanroom staff have to cover their hair?

Yes, under different rules.

Operating theatres. The CDC’s 1999 surgical site infection guideline recommended that staff “wear a cap or hood to fully cover hair on the head and face when entering the operating room.” (CDC notes that guideline has since been superseded by a 2017 update.) How much coverage is enough is still debated. A 2018 joint statement by surgical, anaesthesia, perioperative nursing and infection prevention bodies, including AORN and The Joint Commission, said the requirement for ear coverage “is not supported by sufficient evidence” and that available evidence does not link the type of hat or extent of hair coverage to infection rates. Hospitals set their own theatre attire policy within that range.

Pharmaceutical cleanrooms. EU GMP Annex 1 (2022) is explicit. In Grade D and Grade C areas, “hair, beards and moustaches should be covered.” In Grade B, “sterile headgear should enclose all hair (including facial hair)” and be tucked into the neck of the sterile suit. WHO’s GMP guidance for sterile products uses almost the same wording. Saudi and GCC pharmaceutical plants working to EU or WHO GMP follow these grades, which is where bouffant caps and balaclava hoods earn their place.

How do you set a hair-restraint policy that passes inspection?

1. Map the zones. List every area where food is prepared or stored, or where a cleanroom grade applies.
2. Name the people. Food handlers, cleaners, technicians, managers, visitors, delivery drivers.
3. Pick the product per zone: hairnet, bouffant or mob cap, plus beard covers or hoods where required.
4. Put stock at the entrance to each zone, with a bin for used items on the way out.
5. Write it into your HACCP or GMP procedures and train new staff on day one.

WinHyCare is a supplier and exporter of hairnets, caps and hoods to food businesses, hospitals and pharmaceutical plants in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the wider GCC, supplied to ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 quality standards and packed 100 pieces per bag for high-volume issue. See our supply pages for Saudi Arabia and the UAE, or send us your monthly quantities for a bulk quote.