odilia

“Necessity is the mother of invention” (Plato 427-348 BC). If you combine the necessity with the right knowledge, you get the right recipe for a perfect product. That's how it all started for Saeda Abualhawa, partner and co-founder of odilia.

As Saeda's children grew up and increasingly wanted to decide for themselves which sweets to eat, she felt an urgent need for healthier variants that would still satisfy her little sweet tooth. However, supermarket shelves did not offer good alternatives that scored in both taste and health.

As a trained nutritionist, Saeda didn't want to give up anytime soon. She decided to roll up her sleeves and do the job herself instead of leaving her children at the mercy of the international mass producers of sweets and candies. So she started grinding fresh dates and mixing them with pure chocolate to provide her kids with an alternative candy that is both sweet and nutritious.

Living in Dubai at the time, Saeda had easy access to the highest qual…