Food control
The City of Vaasa Environmental Office’s Food Control monitors all stages of food production from primary production to delivery to the consumer in the Vaasa-Laihia cooperative area.
Food Control aims to ensure the safety of food, its processing, and other food operations, as well as compliance with food regulations, and quality.
Vaasa Food Control guides and advises both local entrepreneurs and residents, and supervises food operations in its areas of activity, from importing to serving. Contact Food Control when:
- you are setting up a food business or making substantial changes to an already registered food business.
- you close down or suspend a food business.
- you are setting up or closing down institutional activities.
- the operator of a food business or service changes.
- you sell or serve food from a mobile food unit.
- you wish to comment on the quality of food or the operation of a certain food premise or its conditions.
- you suspect that you have been contaminated with food poisoning.
Inspection
Inspections of food premises are carried out according to a plan or when necessary, for example, in response to a complaint. The scheduled inspection reports are compiled into an Oiva report, which is published on the internet at www.oivahymy.fi. The establishment must place the Oiva report near its entrance in a place visible to customers.
The Oiva report will report the results of the inspection. During the inspection, we assess multiple areas of the operations on a four-point scale, from A to D. The overall result of the inspection is determined by the lowest grade. The areas include self-monitoring, condition of the premises, cleanliness, staff performance and training, temperature control, and the information provided to clients. The Oiva assessment guidelines for inspections can be found on the Food Authority’s website: go to the inspection guidelines.
If shortcomings are identified during inspections, operators will be given guidance and counselling, and, where necessary, will be requested to take action. These requests will include a deadline for rectification, after which the site will be re-inspected. If the re-inspection shows that the deficiencies have not been corrected, administrative enforcement measures will be considered if necessary.
As part of regular monitoring and to monitor self-monitoring, the food control authority may take food samples from food control premises. The food control authority may carry out sampling projects or similar projects. The food control authority also supervises students’ theses and may carry out a control project as part of the thesis.
Are you planning to start a food business?
Are you planning to start or significantly change a food business? Here is what to do!
- Make sure that the premises are suitable for the planned food business.
- Make sure you have all the necessary attachments and other matters in order, such as:
– Suomi.fi authorisation for the business,
– information of the activities, location, size, and nature,
– a blueprint of the food premises (to be attached to the declaration)
– More information here: ilppa.fi - Make a notification for registration of a food business.
- Wait for the processing of the notification.
- Perform self-monitoring.
Notification of registration of a food business
When starting a new food business, the food business operator must submit a notification of the food business to the Food Control for registration. Any substantial change to an already registered activity must also be notified. The notification must be submitted at least four weeks before starting or substantially modifying the operations and can be done electronically at ilppa.fi.
The notification is valid for an indefinite period until the end of the activity. If the food business is closed down or suspended, the food control authority must be informed. The notification of closing and suspending can also be made electronically at ilppa.fi.
If the operator changes at the control site, the old operator must notify the food control authorities of the end of the food business and the new operator must notify the start of the food business for registration purposes.
It is recommended that the notifications be made at ilppa.fi, but if for some reason this is not possible, do not worry! You can also fill in the form below and send it to us by email.
Please note! A blueprint must be attached to the notification.
Forms
Are you planning to temporarily sell or serve food in the Vaasa or Laihia area?
If you have a registered mobile food establishment in the control area of another municipality and you are coming to Vaasa to sell food, for example at an event, the market place or other point of sale, welcome!
Please inform the food control authority at least four working days before the date of the event.
You can do this electronically using the button in the top right-hand corner or using the form below: Tiedotus myynnistä, liikkuva elintarvikehuoneisto (Information on sales, mobile food premises)
Here you can find more information about outdoor sales of foodstuff: Instructions for outdoor sale of foodstuffs to the public Vaasa 2024
Ilppa, the electronic notification system for environmental health services
Ilppa is a nationwide electronic notification system for environmental health. Ilppa allows you to notify most food and health protection activities.
- the start of operations
- significant changes in operations
- closing down operations
- changing the operator
Such activities include the serving and selling of food, bakeries, and regular outdoor food outlets (e.g. market stalls). The information from Ilppa is sent electronically to the local control unit for processing. Similarly, operators have access to their own data on Ilppa.
The Finnish Food Authority is responsible for the technical maintenance of the Ilppa service. Read more about Ilppa on the Finnish Food Authority’s website.
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When a suspected outbreak of illness or adverse reaction occurs, it is important that Food Control receives this information as soon as possible.
