Ask most people what the UAE tastes like and two answers come back quickly: dates and camel milk. Emirati entrepreneur Rashid Gargash spent years asking what those ingredients could become, and his answer is now sitting on shop shelves across the country.
Rashtions, the nutrition brand he founded, turns dates, camel milk and ghee into protein rich truffles sold in glass jars. With the UAE’s 55th National Day approaching on 2 December, it is exactly the kind of homegrown story worth putting on the table.
The range comes in four flavours: Date Original, Date Truffle, Cocoa Truffle and Brazilian Coffee Truffle. Each 80 gram serving carries up to 20 grams of protein, with no added sugar, preservatives or artificial sweeteners.
The snacks are developed and manufactured in the UAE, and the company describes the idea as Modern Emirati Nutrition, pairing familiar local produce with contemporary nutritional science. It is a deliberate contrast to the imported protein bars that dominate gym bags and supermarket shelves here.
Food security research came before the recipe
Rashtions did not start as a product idea. It began as research into food security and sustainable nutrition in the region, looking at the realities of desalination, groundwater and the food resources the country already has.
Gargash, a graduate of Georgetown University’s Executive Master’s in Leadership programme, spent several years on that research before working with food scientists to turn it into something convenient enough for modern life. Rashtions is his third startup, and he started it with 2 million dirhams of his own money.
“Rashtions began with a broader question about food security and how we could better understand and utilise the resources available in our region,” Gargash said. “Dates and camel milk have long been part of the UAE’s food story, and I wanted to explore how familiar ingredients could be approached through research and innovation to create something relevant to the way people eat today.” His other way of putting it is simpler: if the UAE has incredible local ingredients, why are they not at the centre of more everyday food products?
Where shoppers can find Rashtions today
Since its launch in June 2026, Rashtions has moved quickly into retail. The snacks are available at ADNOC and Emarat service stations, at Union Coop, and through Deliveroo and Noon, with online orders and delivery across the UAE through the brand’s own website.
That mix of petrol station shelves and delivery apps is a smart one for a snack: it meets people where they already stop, and it lets the brand reach customers in every emirate without opening its own stores.
The early coverage has focused on the same point: this is a UAE founded brand making its product here, not importing a foreign recipe and putting a local label on it. The gift box, with three truffle jars and matching cups, has become the brand’s signature presentation, and it is clearly aimed at the gifting market as well as everyday snacking.
Whether shoppers keep coming back will depend on taste and price as much as on the story, but the distribution so far gives the brand a real chance to be found.
What Rashtions means for UAE-made food brands
Rashtions matters because it treats heritage as a strategy, not as a marketing message. Too many local brands borrow Emirati imagery to sell an imported product, and shoppers can tell the difference.
Gargash did the opposite: he started with research into what the UAE can actually grow and produce, then built a product around it. That is a harder road, and it is also the only one that creates something competitors cannot copy by changing a label.
The test now is whether the brand can grow past its first wave of curiosity. A National Day feature brings attention, but repeat purchases bring a business.
Rashtions needs to prove that a premium date and camel milk truffle can earn a regular place in a shopping basket, not just in a gift box. If it does, it will show other Emirati founders that the country’s own pantry is a serious place to build from. Shoppers who want to back that idea can start with one jar and judge it on taste, which is exactly how it should be.
