Notification of food-related activities
- Permit or other obligation
- 7 municipalities
- Public service
A notification must be made of professional operation in the food industry.
A notification must be made of any indoor or outdoor space or a part thereof in which food meant for sale is
- stored
- transported
- marketed
- served
- handled.
A notification must be made of the following:
- food premises such as restaurants, shops or bakeries
- food transports
- mobile food premises such as food trucks
- virtual rooms such as those involved in the online sale of food.
No notification is required for the primary production of food. In contrast, food premises that process foodstuffs of animal origin before retail must apply to be approved as establishments.
Also submit a notification to the Oulu region department of environmental services on mobile food premises and virtual rooms.
Mobile food premises refer to a mobile or temporary space, such as a mobile kiosk, a food truck, a tent shop, a stall, a wagon or other outdoor sales or serving point.
Virtual rooms refer to activities in which the operator does not physically handle food, for example, ...
Do the following
Submit a notification via the ilppa notification e-service of the Finnish Food Authority.
You can submit the notification also in writing to the food control authority of the municipality in which you are located.
Include the following details in the notification:
- the name and contact details of your company and your municipality of residence if you have a mobile food premises or a virtual room
- your company’s business ID, or if you do not have one, your personal identity code
- the name and contact details of your food premises or virtual room
- the visiting address and municipality of your food premises, if it is not a mobile food premises
- description of the operation and its estimated extent
- the estimated time of starting the operation
- a description of your self-monitoring system.
The authority will inform you once it has entered the information included in your notification into its register. The authority will also carry out an inspection to see how you implement your self-monitoring system within 1–6 months of the start of the operation.
Submit the notification with the designated form before commencing the operations. Attach a floor plan to your food premises notification.
For more information and instructions, see the link "More information on submitting a food premises notification". You can also ask for more information from the environmental health care telephone service, by visiting the Ympäristötalo (Environment Building) or by email at ymparisto[at]ouka.fi.
To whom and on what terms
A prerequisite for starting operations is that the food-related activities fulfil the requirements of the Food Act. For example, the food-related activities must not cause danger to human health.
In addition to reporting the start of operations, the operator must notify the relevant authority if
- the operation changes
- the operation is suspended
- the operation is terminated
- the operator changes.
If the operator is established in another state in the European Economic Area and is operating temporarily in Finland, the operator does not need to submit a notification in Finland if it has already submitted a notification of food-related activities in its home country. Temporary activity means less than six months of activity per year.
Deadline
Submit the notification no later than four weeks before starting the operation or making changes to it.Processing time
The operations may be started even if the notification process is still under way.The notification will be processed within a month.