In food retail, trust is often built long before a product reaches a customer’s hands.
It begins inside factories, laboratories, warehouses and supply chains, where decisions that consumers never see determine what ultimately reaches their tables. For Eng. Imed Aidi, that invisible responsibility has become a career spanning more than two decades, multiple markets and some of the region’s most recognised retail businesses.
Today, as Director of Total Quality & Food Safety at Abdullah Al-Othaim Markets, Eng. Imed Aidi is responsible for helping shape the standards behind products consumed across Saudi Arabia and Egypt. His work sits at the intersection of food safety, quality assurance, regulatory compliance and business operations, where a single detail can have consequences far beyond the production floor.
His recognition among the “Top Arab Quality & Food Safety Leaders” for 2025 reflects a career built around making those details matter.
A Career Built Where Quality Meets Business
Aidi’s professional journey began in Tunisia, where his education in food science and engineering gave him a technical foundation for understanding how food is produced, controlled and protected.
He later moved into plant operations, taking on production management responsibilities at Moulin d’Or and Land’Or Cheese Factory. Those early experiences placed him close to the realities of large-scale food manufacturing, from recipes and production systems to operational compliance.
It was a demanding environment, but it offered something invaluable: perspective.
Food quality could not exist as an isolated department. It had to work alongside production, procurement, suppliers, regulation and commercial priorities.
That understanding would become central to Aidi’s leadership philosophy.
The Regional Challenge of Building Consistency
At Majid Al Futtaim, Aidi entered a much larger arena.
Over more than 12 years with the organisation, he led Carrefour’s Private Label Quality function across multiple MENA markets and the 17 countries where Majid Al Futtaim operates. His responsibilities extended across supplier auditing, regulatory compliance, technical innovation and the management of more than 300 quality references.
The scale changed, but the fundamental question remained the same.
How do you create consistent quality when products, suppliers, regulations and markets are constantly changing?
For Aidi, the answer required more than technical knowledge. It demanded analytical thinking, structured systems and the ability to bring people together around standards that could not be compromised.
Private label development became particularly important. Behind every product carrying a retailer’s own brand is a complex network of suppliers, specifications, audits and regulatory requirements. Managing that ecosystem requires the ability to see both the smallest technical detail and the larger commercial picture.
From Compliance to Consumer Confidence
At Abdullah Al-Othaim Markets, Aidi’s responsibilities have expanded into a broader leadership role spanning total quality, food safety and health and safety across Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
The challenge is no longer simply ensuring that individual products meet requirements. It is helping build systems capable of supporting consumer confidence across an extensive retail environment.
That requires understanding Gulf standards, international food safety frameworks and the operational realities of modern food retail.
Aidi’s professional certifications reflect that depth. His credentials include BRC and IFS Lead Auditor qualifications, ISO 22000 Lead Auditor certification, HACCP Level 4, Halal Lead Auditor training, and specialised expertise in food fraud and food defence, alongside professional credentials from organisations including IFS, SGS, Bureau Veritas and Intertek.
Yet certifications alone do not create organisational change.
The harder task is translating technical knowledge into everyday behaviour.
The Leadership Behind the Standards
That is where Aidi’s approach becomes particularly significant.
His work combines regulatory expertise with team development and operational leadership. Rather than treating food safety as a checklist, his career has focused on embedding quality into the way organisations develop products, manage suppliers and operate across markets.
It is an approach increasingly important to the global food industry.
Consumers may never see an audit report or a technical specification, but they experience the result through the products they purchase and the confidence they place in a brand.
For retailers, that confidence is one of their most valuable assets.
A Recognition of Regional Influence
Being named among the Top Arab Quality & Food Safety Leaders for 2025 places Aidi within a regional conversation about the future of food retail and quality assurance.
His career illustrates how food safety has evolved from a largely technical function into a strategic business discipline. As supply chains become more complex and consumers become increasingly attentive to transparency, safety and quality, the people responsible for maintaining those standards carry a growing responsibility.
Aidi’s journey also reflects the increasingly international nature of Arab business leadership. His experience across Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and wider MENA markets has given him a perspective shaped by different regulatory environments and operating cultures.
Building Trust Beyond the Product
Ultimately, Eng. Imed Aidi’s work is about something that cannot be printed on a product label: trust.
Every supplier audit, quality reference, regulatory review and food safety decision contributes to that larger promise.
After more than 20 years in the field, his journey demonstrates that leadership in food quality is rarely about being visible. Much of the most important work happens behind the scenes, long before consumers ever encounter the final product.
That may be precisely what makes the recognition meaningful.
Eng. Imed Aidi is helping shape a food retail environment where quality is not simply measured by what reaches the shelf, but by the systems, people and principles that made it safe to get there.
And as the Arab region’s food industry continues to expand, that responsibility is becoming not only a professional mission, but part of a larger legacy of consumer trust and operational excellence.
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