It is a marvel in logistics.
Each day, tonnes of food, catering equipment and bonded goods are unloaded into the ground floor of the three-storeyed Emirates Flight Catering building, which has a footprint the size of two and a-half rugby fields, near Dubai's airport.
A short time later, replenished airline carts are loaded on to trucks and delivered to aircraft operated by Emirates Airline and 120 other airlines that fly through Dubai.
In between, an army of 6000 people empty used catering carts laden with dirty dishes and food scraps, and clean, sanitise and replenish them with fresh meals, ranging from a few sandwiches to multicourse meals for first-class travellers.
Linen is laundered off-site by a wholly-owned subsidiary of the airline.
Despite the large number of employees, the senior vice-president of airport catering services for Emirates Flight Catering, Duncan Davis, said the kitchen was one of just six such automated kitchens in the world.
A 2.4km monorail and 3km conveyer belt move items around the complex, while there are 13 dishwashers.
A vacuum system takes just six seconds to bring rubbish from all over the building to a centralised and isolated part of the complex, where it is either recycled or compacted for disposal.
Containers whose seals remain unopened and even the foil on top of meals are recycled.
Mr Davis said keeping rubbish separated ensured exceptionally high hygiene standards were maintained.
Those standards include ensuring all staff and visitors are not carrying disease or viruses, X-raying everything that arrives on site and 226 closed-circuit television cameras monitoring the site, which operates day and night.
Everything that goes on an Emirates aircraft to service passengers passes through the complex, including first-aid kits, children's toys, alcohol and bonded goods.
Mr Davis said managing logistics was half the battle, while another vital target was to standardise the size and appearance of meals.
It was unacceptable to have two passengers with the same meal, but one to have a larger helping than the other.
In the days leading up to each flight, the kitchen receives regular updates on passenger loads, until the final summary just hours before takeoff.
This allows the kitchen to provide the exact number of meals required in each class.
In addition, the kitchen has to send replacement cutlery and crockery to other airports for return Emirates flights.
Once prepared, Mr Davis said the laden food carts had to be loaded on to the plane, at less than 10degC, where meals would later be heated and served.
Mr Davis said Emirates employed nine chefs who grapple with issues such as developing menus to suit children or, as new flights are put on to new destinations, providing meals suitable for people travelling there.
Kitchen staff come from all over the world and Mr Davis said those from developing countries were given free accommodation, free uniform, free food and free health care.
It was a formula that worked, he said, with the kitchen averaging just a single complaint per 90,000 meals.
With exposure to 16 million travellers a year, Emirates Flight Catering is a huge customer for New Zealand dairy company Fonterra.
It is a market the dairy company targets with added value products such as branded cream, cheese, butter and milk powder.
Sales of Fonterra branded products are growing at a compound year-on-year rate of 28%.
Food facts: Emirates Flight Catering, Dubai
• The largest commercial kitchen in the world.
• Makes 115,000 meals a day to supply 280 daily flights.
• Employs 6000 people representing 45 nationalities.
• Each day two million individual items of crockery and cutlery are washed.
• More than 3000 used airline carts are delivered to the kitchen each day from economy-class passengers.
• Agribusiness Editor Neal Wallace travelled to the Middle East with Fonterra.
