Food Act and Hygiene Passport – What You Need to Know
Why is food safety so important?
Food safety is essential for protecting consumer health, ensuring the integrity of the food chain, and safeguarding consumers’ economic interests. Proper food handling helps prevent illnesses and ensures that consumers can trust the products they buy.
Key reasons why food safety matters
Protecting consumer health: Food must be safe and must not pose risks to human health. The Hygiene Passport ensures that food handlers are trained to prevent foodborne illnesses and maintain personal hygiene.
Risk management: Food hygiene covers all measures needed to manage risks related to food. The HACCP system (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) is used to identify and control hazards.
Protecting consumers’ economic interests: Information provided about food must be accurate and sufficient. This prevents misleading practices and ensures that consumers get exactly what they pay for.
Integrity of the food chain: Safety must be ensured throughout the entire chain, from primary production to the consumer. This includes requirements such as traceability and maintaining the cold chain.
Ensuring quality: In addition to safety, food must be of good quality. Materials that come into contact with food must be suitable and must not alter the food’s composition or properties.
The Food Act – what is it?
The Food Act (297/2021) is Finland’s national legislation, whose primary purpose is to protect consumer health and economic interests. This is achieved by ensuring:
- the safety of food and food contact materials
- the quality of food
- the adequacy and accuracy of information provided about food
In addition, the law supports the operating conditions of food and contact material businesses and strengthens the reliability of the entire food chain.
Core principles and requirements
Consumer protection and safety: Food must be suitable for human consumption and must not cause chemical, physical, microbiological, or health risks.
Accuracy of information: Information about food and food contact materials must be sufficient and accurate, and must not mislead consumers.
Self-monitoring: Food business operators must implement a self-monitoring system to identify and manage risks in their operations. Results must be documented.
Traceability: Required traceability information must accompany food, production animals, and food contact materials.
Prevention of zoonoses: Operators must prevent the spread of diseases from animals to humans through food.
Hygiene Passport: Anyone handling unpackaged perishable food for more than three months must hold a Hygiene Passport approved by the Finnish Food Authority (Ruokavirasto). The passport demonstrates competence in microbiology, foodborne illnesses, hygienic working practices, personal hygiene, cleaning, self-monitoring, and legislation. Employers must keep records of their staff’s hygiene competence. The Finnish Food Authority is responsible for the Hygiene Passport test, which is organized by approved examiners.
Registration and approval of operations: Most food business activities must be notified to supervisory authorities for registration. Establishments handling animal-based foods require separate approval.
Official control: Authorities have the right to carry out inspections and take samples.
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry: responsible for legislation and overall guidance.
Finnish Food Authority (Ruokavirasto): plans, directs, and develops national food control.
Municipalities: responsible for local food control.
Key regulations and provisions
EU General Food Hygiene Regulation: Regulation (EC) No 852/2004, Annex II, Chapter 12, Section 1 sets requirements for hygiene and premises.
Finnish Food Authority Regulation on Hygiene Competence (2024): In Finland, hygiene competence is verified through the Hygiene Passport, which demonstrates sufficient knowledge of food hygiene.