Under the Food Act, a food business operator must submit a written registration announcement of the food business to the authority responsible for food control in the municipality or city that the premises are located in at least four weeks before the commencement of the operation or an essential change in it (registered food business). Launching a registered food business does not require an inspection by the food control authority. See the contact details of the food control authorities of municipalities and cities here.
You can also submit the registration announcement of your food business online. In the Ilppa web service you can submit an announcement of most food and health protection sector activities when they are launched or there is an essential change in the activities, of if the business is wound down or the business operator changes. More information on the Ilppa service.
Registration announcements apply to mobile food premises or to food premises in which the purpose of the operation is only transporting or storing in a container or a vehicle are processed by the home municipality recorded for the food business operator in the Business Information System.
An essential change in the operation means a significant increase in risks related to food safety. For example, such an essential change in the operation may be one in which the food premises starts to import products or the food store starts to sell products from a service counter or to prepare food. An increase in the number of square metres as such is not necessarily an essential change unless new activities are started on the food premises.
An announcement concerning so-called virtual food premises can be processed by the control authority of the operator's municipality of residence if the municipality of location is unclear. Virtual food premises are food premises that are used only for selling or forwarding foodstuffs without the foodstuffs being on the premises concerned, such as in an online shop.
The Food Act lays down the general requirements applying to food premises. In addition to that, provisions on the structural and operational requirements of food premises are laid down in Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 of the European Parliament and the Council on the hygiene of foodstuffs and in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Decree on Food Hygiene (318/2021).
Own-checks
Own-check activities must be sufficient with regard to the operation. With the implementation of own-check activities, the risks related to food hygiene can be managed. The control authority does not approve the own-check plan. The control authority has the obligation to provide advice and the right to impose orders to ensure the functioning of own-checks. The operator may use the good practices guidelines of their sector, which have been approved by the Finnish Food Authority and which may replace the own-check plan either partly or fully. In registered food premises, the own-check plan must be presented to the control authority in connection with the first inspection at the latest. Sections 22 and 36 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Decree on Food Hygiene (318/2021) sets requirements for the own-check activities.
When is announcing the food business not required?
Under section 10, subsection 2 of the Food Act (297/2021), the registration announcement need not be given when the risks associated with the business are minor from the point of view of food safety and
- food business operations take place on the same premises as the other business operations of the operator (for example, coffee and biscuits served at the hairdresser’s)
- the operator is a natural person (for example, the person bakes occasionally and sells pastry at the marketplace) or
- the operations cannot be considered as pursuit of business activities (for example, the sale of foods at fairs of schools or sports clubs).
Only if the risks associated with the operation are minor and one of the above-mentioned conditions is met, does the announcement not need to be submitted. An announcement must always be submitted for professional activity (turnover of the food business operation is more than EUR 15,000 a year) even if the risks associated with it are minor from the point of view of food safety.
The Food business requiring registration or not? instructions contain interpretations of when food business and the risks associated with it are so small that the operation does not need to be registered.
In the Finnish Food Authority's view, a pop-up restaurant can operate for 12 days during a calendar year before a food premises announcement is required for the operation. Read more about pop-up activities here.