Food supplements are food products, and no authorisation is required for their marketing. Therefore, the legality of the composition or labelling of food supplements is not assessed before they are placed on the market. The food business operator is responsible for the safety and other legality of the food supplement it places on the market.
Notification of the placing on the market of food supplements shall be submitted to the Finnish Food Authority
A food business operator who manufactures, has a food supplement manufactured, imports, or otherwise places on the Finnish market a food supplement shall submit a notification to the Finnish Food Authority. The Food Authority considers that a notification of the placing on the market of a food supplement should be submitted at the latest at the same time as the food supplement is placed on the market. A notification shall also be submitted when the composition of the food supplement with respect to its characteristic substances changes.
A food supplement notification is submitted by using Finnish Food Authority's electronic service. The Suomi.fi identification is used for logging in to Finnish Food Authority's electronic service. The notification can be made in Finnish or Swedish. The link to detailed instructions on how to submit a notification can be found in the “More information” menu.
If the food business operator is unable, for one reason or another, to submit the notification via the electronic service, the food supplement notification can also be sent by using the notification form. The notification forms are available in Finnish, Swedish and English. The notification form can be sent with the attachments to Finnish Food Authority's Registry office at: Finnish Food Authority / Registry Office, PO 200, 00027 Ruokavirasto, or kirjaamo@ruokavirasto.fi .
Reception of notification
The Finnish Food Authority considers the notification obligation to be fulfilled when the notification, complete with all the required information and enclosures, is received at Finnish Food Authority. The mandatory appendix is a model of the Finnish and Swedish labelling of the food supplement, which must be clear and legible.
When receiving the notification, the Finnish Food Authority does not assess the legality of the composition or labelling of the food supplement. Receiving a notification does not mean that the Finnish Food Authority has approved the notified dietary supplement as compliant with legislation.
The food business operator is responsible for the compliance of the food supplement with the Decree on Food supplements and other food legislation.
Notification fee
A fee is charged for the processing of food supplement notifications in accordance with price list of the Finnish Food Authority (in Finnish). The processing fees for notifications differ depending on the way of the submission:
- The fee for each notification submitted via the electronic service is 44 euros.
- The fee for each notification submitted by post (incl. email) is 101 euros.
If the processing of the notification is suspended due to missing information or the submitted notification is cancelled, half of the processing fee will be charged.
Notice when using the electronic service
The processing of notifications received through the electronic service is mainly automatically processed and the system sends the information of the notification directly to the municipal authority responsible for the control of the company. For this reason, the notifier is invited to pay particular attention to the accuracy of the information provided in the notification before the notification is submitted to the service. The Finnish Food Authority does not correct faulty notifications.