January 2007
January 2002
Cold winters and fairly warm summers mark the climate of Finland. In summer the temperature quite often rises to +20°C or more and occasionally goes close to +30°C in the southern and eastern parts of the country. In winter, temperatures of -20°C are not uncommon in many areas. The mean temperature in Helsinki in July is +17°C and in February -5.7°C.
The total population is 5.2 million, 17 inhabitants per square kilometre (31.12.1998). 65% of those live in towns or urban areas, 35% in rural areas. The principal cities are Helsinki, which is the capital of Finland (551,000 inhabitants), Espoo (210,000), Tampere (193,000), Vantaa (176,000), Turku (172,000) and Oulu (118,000). About one million people live in the Helsinki metropolitan area.
Finland has two official languages: Finnish and Swedish. Finnish, a Finno-Ugric language, is spoken by 93% and Swedish by 6% of the population. Lutherans account for 85,6% of the population, Orthodox for 1,1% and those unaffiliated with any church for 12,3% (compared with 2,7% in 1950). According to 1996 statistics, the number of foreigners in Finland was 74,000, with Russians being the largest group (about 20% of the total) followed by inhabitants with Estonian, Swedish and Somali citizenship.
Finland has a republican constitution, which combines a parliamentary system with a presidency. The President has supreme executive power but legislative power is exercised by Parliament in conjunction with a president. The Finnish Parliament consists of one chamber with 200 members. The members are elected for a four-year term by direct popular vote under a system of proportional representation. The Council of State, headed by the Prime Minister, is responsible to Parliament. The President of the Republic is elected also by a direct popular vote for a period of six years and may serve a maximum of two consecutive terms.
The proportion of elderly citizens is increasing rapidly in Finland which places growing demands on care of the elderly and on pension schemes. The proportion of children (under 15) has dropped to 19%, from 30% in the 1950s, and the proportion of elderly people (over 64) has grown from 7% in the 1950s to 14%. The average life expectancy of Finnish women is 80.3 years and of men 73.3. The most common causes of death are cardio-vascular diseases, cancer and respiratory diseases. Accidents account for 10% of deaths.
Finland's economic structure is that of a typical urbanised country; 66% of the population were employed before the rapid increase in unemployment during the 1990s. The proportion of unemployed people in 1999 was 10.2%. Primary production is now a source of employment for only 7% of the population, while 28% work in industry and construction and 65% in trade and services.
The Finnish currency unit is the markka, also known as the Finnish mark, (FIM). One euro equals FIM 5.95. Finland is one of the eleven EU countries that will introduce the euro in 2002. National income grew by 5.1 per cent in nominal terms and amounted to FIM 114,500 per capita in 1999. In the same year the Finnish gross national income was FIM 708 billion.
27.3% of households' income goes to housing and energy, 13.6% to food and non-alcoholic drinks and 16.2% to transportation according to 1998 consumption expenditure statistics. Households' food expenditure per capita is divided to: meat and meat products 21%, bread and cereal products 17%, milk, cheese and eggs 17% and fruits and vegetables 17%.
The level of self-sufficiency in food production has decreased during the 1990s. In 1999 the ratio of production to consumption was more than 100% in dairy products, pork and eggs production, between 70-100% in the production of beef, sugar, vegetables and berries. The bread grains ratio was only 40% because of few bad harvest years. The main imported food and agricultural products in 1999 were fruits, spirits and wines, raw coffee, grain and dairy products. The main exported food and agricultural products were dairy products, chocolate and sweets, sugarchemical products, spirits and meat.
Food legislation prescribes the general requirements and nature of food control as well as the powers of the relevant authorities. It contains the principles regarding food control designed to protect consumers and also producers. Since Finland joined the European Union on 1 January 1995, food legislation has been intensely developed. EU regulations have been transposed into Finnish law and key national food legislation has been reformed.
Key national food legislation consists of:
The purpose of the Food Act is to ensure the quality of foodstuffs and to protect the consumer against health hazards involved by foodstuffs unfit for human consumption, as well as against economic losses due to foodstuffs, which do not conform to regulations concerning them. The Food Act provides the basis for the organisation of food control and related activities. The Health Care Act and Decree provide the basis for controlling food production conditions. The Hygiene legislation regarding foodstuffs of animal origin regulates the production of milk, meat, fish and egg products.
National legislation also includes the quality requirements for vegetables, baby foods, chocolate and other foodstuffs. Conditions have also been laid down regarding the use of food additives, and maximum level have been set for additives, pesticide residues and other contaminants. Sampling and laboratory activities are also regulated to support food control. Finnish legislation contains regulations on labelling, nutritional quality and marketing.
Decision 710/1996 by the Ministry of Trade and Industry concerns the organising of the official control of foodstuffs including the requirements and approval of laboratories for involved in the official control of foodstuffs of non-animal origin. Requirements for laboratories carrying out analyses of foodstuffs of animal origin are contained in Decision 340/1998 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The control measures regarding drinking water are contained in Decision 74/1994 by the Ministry for Social Affairs and Health.
2.2 The Administrative Structure in Food Control
Finland has a four-level administrative model, which comprises ministries, central administration, the provincial state offices and municipalities
The ministries are responsible for developing food legislation. The Ministry of Trade and Industry directs tasks concerned with market control including composition, labelling, advertising and the measures aimed at preventing deception. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry handles tasks dealing with primary production and processing, like meat and dairy products and other foodstuffs of animal origin. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is concerned with the public health aspects.
Central government administration is in charge of co-ordinating national food control. There has been two official enforcement authorities, the National Food Administration, subordinate to the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the National Veterinary and Food Research Institute, subordinate to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, who direct food control in their own operational areas. The National Food Administration's tasks include supervising and monitoring regional and local authorities, taking part in EU and other international projects, producing and publishing research reports and servicing industry, commerce and consumers. The National Veterinary and Food Research Institute is responsible for directing the control of the production, processing and importing of foodstuffs obtained from animals and for controlling production facilities using animal products, as well as matters related to veterinary medicine. The institute has a central laboratory and five regional laboratories.
But on 1 March 2001, The National Food Administration and the Food Control Department of the National Veterinary and Food Research Institute will be joined together to form only one enforcement authority. The name of the new independent enforcement authority will be National Food Agency, and it will be subordinate to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health will continue to direct the activities of the reorganised office in their respective fields. The National Veterinary and Food Research Institute will continue to be a research institute but it will no longer have any food control authority responsibilities.
Regional administration consists of five provincial state offices with food inspectors and some 250 provincial food control units. The provincial state offices are responsible for developing, planning and directing food control at the regional level. Food control takes place as part of environmental health work, in close co-operation with veterinary medicine and health protection. Provincial officers support the municipalities by counselling, training and developing working methods and by doing monitoring, evaluating and reporting on various projects carried out in different municipalities. Provincial officers also take part in the activities of the National Food Administration and other government agencies.
Municipalities perform the actual control work. The major task is to take care of the practicalities of food control. The work includes performing inspections, advising business enterprises and approving plans regarding in-house control. Food samples are tested at municipal food research institutes. Food control at the municipal level is part of environmental health work; officials take care of other tasks related to environmental health, and most of them are involved only part-time in food control. The municipalities enjoy an extensive degree of self-administration and are free to decide for themselves how they wish to arrange food control in their own area.
The state is responsible for supplying the basic financing for food control at the ministry, central administration and provincial state office level. Municipal food control is financed partly with state subsidies but is mainly funded by the municipalities themselves. As a rule, enterprises must pay fees for food control. Officials can charge fees for licenses, inspections and sampling.
Control of imported food depends on the country where the foodstuff is coming from. Foodstuffs from EU member states are controlled in the same way as foodstuffs produced in Finland because products from EU countries enjoy free access to the market unless there is cause to suspect their quality or suitability as foodstuffs. First, the food product is controlled by the manufacturers with the help of in-house control and by the authorities in the country of origin. Secondly when the food product enters into the Finnish market it is controlled by the municipal authorities, importer's in-house control and by the joint market control programme of the National Food Administration and the customs authorities. The product that is already on the Finnish market is controlled by market control (National Food Administration, provincial state offices, and municipal authorities).
The National Board of Customs, subordinate to the Ministry of Finance, controls food imports from third countries, i.e. countries outside the EU. The National Board of Customs takes samples and inspects foodstuffs with the help of its district customs houses. The Customs Laboratory is primarily responsible for carrying out the analyses of imports from countries outside the EU. In some cases it also performs tests related to in-house control for business enterprises, in addition to which it may conduct market control research aimed at surveying the national control situation.
Radiation safety is controlled by The Finnish Centre for Radiation and Nuclear Safety. This organisation is also responsible for monitoring radiation levels in foodstuffs as well as crisis control.
2.3 Enforcement powers
Authorities' control powers are based on different regulations. The principle is that control authorities have the right to make inspections without giving advance notice and to take samples at all stages of food handling. Authorities also have the right to obtain information to support control. The right to make inspections also applies to bodies and inspectors in accordance with international agreements.
Food control authorities must take measures if they observe deficiencies. Control measures depend on the nature of the deficiency. For minor deficiencies, warning is all that is required. If necessary, more drastic steps can be taken to restrict production or distribution. Coercive measures include temporary sales bans, bans, general publicity, withdrawing products from the market, or confiscating products. Coercive measures can be limited to a small area or have a broader scope, covering the entire nation or several provinces. Central administration officials can only decide on broad coercive measures. Coercive measures also extend to marketing. The National Food Administration can issue different types of marketing bans and demand changes in marketing.
Control authorities can impose bans or demand compliance with regulations under penalty of fine or confiscate foodstuffs if there is reason to suspect direct hazards to health. Violation of food regulations may result in a fine. Criminal offences are subject to harsher punishment, including up to six months in prison. Any decision by food control authorities can be appealed. Officials have an obligation to maintain secrecy with regard to enterprises' financial information and other business secrets. They are free to divulge information on deficiencies in product quality, however.
2.4 Professional qualification of food control officials and laboratories
The Food Act requires sufficient, competent and experienced personnel in the field of food control. The officials who are responsible for planning and directing control in ministries, central administration and the provincial state offices include veterinarians, chemists, microbiologists, nutritionists, lawyers and other persons with academic degrees.
At the municipal level, veterinarians specialising in food hygiene are generally in charge of directing control. In some places the person responsible for food control is also in charge of other aspects of environmental health and must have completed the necessary university-level studies. The inspectors who conduct the practical control either have university degrees or have completed a four-year certificate in environmental health at the college level.
Laboratory tests are the responsibility of chemists and in the case of microbiological quality, particularly in municipal food research institutes, of veterinarians. Laboratory assistants receive basic training at the college level.
The laboratories must be approved by the National Food Administration (control under the Food Act) or by the National Veterinary and Food Research Institute (control under the Act on Hygiene of Foodstuffs of Animal Origin). Generally it is required that laboratories have a well functioning quality system, which has been assessed by a third party, and uses validated methods of analysis. In practice this means that the laboratories involved in the official food control must apply for and receive accreditation by the Finnish national accrediting body.
Laboratories are required, whenever possible, to participate in national or international proficiency testing schemes. The National Food Administration requires laboratories to be organisationally independent from the food control, and the laboratory staff has no food control duties. In 1999 there are about 40 test laboratories authorised to carry out analyses for the needs of the official food control. About 30 of these have a competence in microbiological and chemical methods, the reminders have capability only for microbiological analyses. The National Food Administration keeps a register of these laboratories. The National Veterinary and Food Research Institute also keeps a register of the laboratories (90 laboratories) it has approved to carry out analyses in the area of foodstuffs from animal origin.
2.5 Other bodies with special tasks
The following State research institutes are in the sense of section 16 of the Food Act official testing laboratories, which have been entrusted with special duties. These research institutes are:
The research institutes' special duties are to act as experts in their own field and to develop and maintain the quality systems of official testing laboratories. They also take part in proficiency tests arranged by the National Food Administration, train the personnel of official testing laboratories, develop food legislation and food control and contribute to organising the official food control.
The National Food Administration also works in close co-operation with the Plant Production Inspection Centre, the National Public Health Institute, the Product Control Authority for Welfare and Health and with the Food Council. The Food Council works as a co-operation organ between authorities.
The Food Act defines the food or foodstuff as a product or preparation, whether or not pre-packaged, which is intended for consumption by eating, drinking or otherwise by a human being. It can also be an ingredient or raw material of such a product.
Foodstuff unfit for human consumption means a foodstuff which is known or is reasonably suspected to cause a poisoning, ill health or any other health disorder in human organism either directly or as a result of continued consumption. It can also be a foodstuff which due to deterioration, soiling, defective manufacturing, impurities, extraneous odour or taste, or similar cause is faulty to a degree making it unacceptable when compared to any generally approved ideas about the composition, genuineness or quality of, or to any specific properties justifiably to be expected from a foodstuff.
3.2 Use of in-house control (HACCP)
The official food control in Finland is complemented by a general requirements for economic operators to carry out in-house control. In-house control according to the HACCP principle became mandatory in Finland at the beginning of 1995. The National Food Administration has monitored the progress of in-house control each year. In the first year after in-house control became mandatory, only 16.7% of food establishments had an in-house control plan. In the next two years the figure rose to 48.7% and 64%. According to the latest survey, 74% of food establishments have submitted an in-house control plan to authorities.
Food establishments must identify and record the steps in the manufacture and handling of a food that are critical from the viewpoint of food regulations, and they must take measures for the regular control of these critical points. Correspondingly, the Health Protection Act (763/1994) presumes that economic operators have to be aware of the hygienic risks associated with the handling of foodstuffs and prepare a plan and follow it in order to prevent and eliminate problems giving rise to health hazards. Food establishments operating under the Hygiene Act must report to the municipal health authorities all identified or suspected health hazards relating to foods and their ingredients. Slaughterhouses report to the state veterinary meat inspection, which is the control authority
In-house control, which food establishments conduct to ensure product quality and safety, plays an important role in complementing the official food control. Legislation includes provisions regarding the planning of in-house control systems. Municipal authorities monitor the functioning of in-house control and take it into account when planning the official food control. Developing in-house control is one of the key development tasks in the field.
3.3 Food Additives
The general principles concerning the use and sale of food additives are contained in the Decree on Food Additives (521/1992) and in the decisions of the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Finland also follows the EU legislation on food additives.
The Decree on Food Additives defines the food additive as a substance with a technological function added to a foodstuff, which may have nutritive value, but which is as such not normally used as a foodstuff or as a characteristic ingredient of a foodstuff.
An additive may be added to a foodstuff either as such or mixed with other ingredients during the manufacture, packaging, storage, transportation or any other treatment or handling of the foodstuff. The Ministry of Trade and Industry decides on the use of food additives.
3.4 Control of Food Packaging
Provisions relating to the control of food packaging and labelling are contained in the Decree on Labelling of Foodstuffs (794/1991), the Decision of the Ministry of Trade and Industry on Labelling of Foodstuffs (795/1991) and in several different decisions of the Ministry of Trade and Industry on Materials and Articles Intended To Come into Contact with Food.
The national foodstuffs production quality strategy started in 1997 to reinforce consumers faith in pure and high-quality foods produced in Finland and to promote the competitiveness of Finnish foodstuffs. The aim of the strategy was to commit all the actors in the entire food production chain, from field to table, to produce foodstuffs with the aid of systematic quality work in a customer-oriented, profitable and competitive manner while respecting people, animals and nature.
The food strategy work was started by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry which set up a broad-based food quality management group. It has members from all the central actors including agricultural producers, industry, commerce, consumers, research, advice and other parties and experts in the food cluster. It is very unique that all the actors in the food chain are so comprehensively committed to joint values and goals. The ambitious goal is for all the parts of the food chain to be within the sphere of the systematic quality work by 2006. The quality systems are mainly based on ISO 9002 standard.
The Finnish Law can be read from internet, from the www-page www.finlex.edita.fi but only in Finnish and Swedish versions. The English version is still being prepared.
January 2002
The results of the evaluation of the official foodstuffs control system by the European Commission Foodstuffs Assessment Team in Finland can be seen at:
- First Visit: http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/sfp/oc02fin_en.pdf
- Second Visit: http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/sfp/oc03fin_en.pdf
The result of a subsequent visit organised by the EU Food and Veterinary Officeassessing food hygiene can be found at:
Information last updated - February 2007