Notification of food-related activities
- Permit or other obligation
- 5 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.
Any substantial modification or termination of operations shall also be notified.
In Lappeenranta, Lemi, Luumäki, Savitaipale, and Taipalsaari, the notification is submitted to the Lappeenranta region’s department of environmental services. The notification is processed in food control and a certificate of the processing of the notification is sent to the operator.
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.
By using the e-service, you can always check your company's up-to-date registration information in the service.
You can submit the notification also in writing to the food control authority of the municipality in which you are located. Ask the health inspector for the notification form. The completed form shall be sent to the Lappeenranta region's department of environmental services registry office.
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.
When the operator changes, the previous operator submits a termination notification of their activities and the new operator submits a start-up notification.
Deadline
Submit the notification no later than four weeks before starting the operation or making changes to it.The notification must be made no later than four weeks prior to starting the operation or an essential change.
Processing time
The operations may be started even if the notification process is still under way.The municipal supervisory authority provides the notifier with a certificate of receiving the notification and makes the first check within 1–6 months of starting the operation. The operation may begin even if processing the matter is still under way.
Period of validity
The notification is valid until further notice.The notification is valid for an indefinite term.