The safety and regulatory compliance of food contact materials is controlled by food control and monitoring in Finland. Control is performed to monitor the compliance of food contact materials with the requirements of the EU framework regulation 1935/2004. The purpose of the control is to protect people from harmful chemicals and reduce/minimise their subjection to chemical substances that are migrated into food from contact materials.
Finnish Food Authority is responsible for managing and directing the control in all of Finland. Municipal food inspectors make inspections both at the food contact material operators’ facilities and monitor the use of contact materials in companies handling food, or in other words, in approved and registered food establishments.
The Finnish Food Act 297/2021 (in Finnish) guarantees municipal food control and monitoring extensive rights to make required inspections for monitoring, to see documentation and to gain access to places of operation, to take samples free of charge and to obtain information about the business. Food control and monitoring must also guide and advice operators on a general level and, when necessary, to issue requests, orders and prohibitions if required by the deficiencies found during an inspection.
You can find the contact information of your municipal environmental healthcare control unit by following the link and choosing your municipality: Foodsector> contact-food-control-authority.
Finnish Food Authority has created control instructions for both monitoring food contact material companies and monitoring the safety and other compliance of contact materials in food establishments. Control instructions for materials and articles coming into contact with food are intended for authorities defined in the Food Act to ensure the regulatory compliance of contact materials, to harmonise food safety control and to promote the equal treatment of operators.
These instructions are also useful for operators as they are creating a quality management system or a self-monitoring plan according to proper forms of production.