Who needs to register a food business?
- Grocery stores
- Kiosks
- Restaurants
- Pubs and bars
- Cafés
- Bakeries
- Institutional kitchens
- Warehouses of food
- Businesses with regular outdoor food sales, e.g. farmer's markets and food handling premises
- Businesses distributing, importing, preparing, etc. food products
- Businesses selling, distributing, importing, etc. food supplements
Submit a notification of your food business
Submit a notification regarding new food business activities online, by email or by post. Submit your notification four weeks before commencing food business activities. Attach a floor plan of the food premises to your notification. If necessary, you can draw the floor plan yourself.
We will process your notification within a week. We will check the information that you have provided and ask for further details if necessary. Once the notification has been processed, you will be able to view the details of the location regarding which you submitted the notification and any changes to it in the Ilppa service. We will send you a certificate by email once your notification has been processed.
Use the online service
Submit a notification regarding your activities online
You will need Suomi.fi authorisation for the business regarding which you wish to submit a notification.
Fill in a form
Submit a notification regarding your activities by email or post
If you are unable to submit your notification via the Ilppa service, you can fill out a PDF or Word form. Send the completed form and attachments by email to kymp.elintarviketurvallisuus@hel.fi or print out the form and send it by post to the following address:
Environmental Services / Food Safety Unit
PO Box 58235, 00099
City of Helsinki
Food business inspections
The first inspection will be carried out within 1–6 months of the start of the activities. After that, inspections will be carried out in accordance with the control plan. You can ask the inspector how often your activities will be inspected.
Inspections are usually carried out without prior notice, e.g. when there is a change of operator. The inspector will give advance notice of the time of the first inspection if no similar activities have previously taken place in the premises.
The inspection focuses on aspects such as the facilities and activities of the food premises. You can find inspection instructions on the Oiva-hymy website(Link leads to external service).
Carry out in-house control
You must monitor your own activities systematically and continuously via in-house control. The obligation to carry out in-house control applies to all operators from the food industry to kiosk operators.
In-house control ensures that the activities and foods are safe and comply with food legislation. You can draw up your own in-house control plan or use the templates below.
Templates for in-house control plans:
In-house control plan for a café or restaurant (Word)
In-house control plan for a shop (Word)
In-house control plan for outdoor sales (Word)
In-house control plan for a pub or other establishment serving only beverages (Word, in Finnish)
Frequently asked questions
Yes, you can. Handling foods professionally in a home setting is permitted on a small scale. The activities must be registered if food is prepared for sale on a professional and regular basis.
Read the detailed instructions on using the home as a food establishment (PDF)
Mobile premises, such as vending vans, bikes and tents, are subject to submitting a notification and registering the activities. Registered operators must provide information about upcoming sales events.
Further information on the registration and notification obligations for outdoor food sales
In the following situations, food business activities do not need to be registered:
- Food preparation as a pop-up activity. You must have no more than 12 operating days per year, and the turnover from the food business activities must be less than €20,000 per year. You must not serve foods such as raw meat or sushi. See the Finnish Food Safety Authority’s website for more information about pop-up restaurant activities(Link leads to external service)
- If you only prepare products that can be stored at room temperature, such as buns and bread, and the turnover from the food business activities is less than €20,000 per year.
- Sales and catering activities related to fundraising by sports clubs, school classes or associations. You can sell food that can be stored at room temperature and packaged ice cream, and grill sausages, make sandwiches and fry pancakes.
- Business activity training, e.g. at educational institutions or 4H clubs. You can prepare and sell food that can be stored at room temperature and packaged ice cream, and grill sausages, make sandwiches and fry pancakes. The turnover from the food business activities must be less than €20,000 per year.
- Small-scale catering carried out alongside other activities, where the turnover from the food business activities is less than €20,000 per year. Examples of such activities include serving coffee in a hairdressing salon or selling sweets and packaged ice cream in a bookshop.
- A home-like kitchen, e.g. in supported housing or at a small daycare centre, provided there are fewer than 12 places for customers. Helsinki’s instructions for home-like kitchens (PDF, in Finnish)
The most common situations in which activities do not need to be registered are briefly described above.
A health report is required at the start of employment for any worker who works in a food premises and handles unpackaged, easily perishable food.
The report is required from everyone, including trainees who work at the site without an employment contract for at least one month. A report is also needed if, during employment, there is a justified reason to suspect that the worker is a salmonella carrier.
The health report must be completed by a doctor or a public health nurse. As part of the assessment, the doctor or nurse will determine whether a salmonella test is necessary.
The operator must maintain a record of employees’ health reports.
Pets may be brought into the customer facilities of a shop or restaurant with the operator’s permission. The operator may restrict the types of pets allowed, e.g. to certain species or animals of a certain size. Information about this must be provided at the entrance.
Guide dogs for the visually impaired, assistance dogs for the physically impaired and hearing dogs for the hearing impaired are always allowed to enter the serving facilities of the food premises.
Birds may occasionally find their way into your food premises. You must try to remove any birds from the premises as quickly as possible. A bird that has ended up indoors will usually fly towards light. It is advisable to dim the lights indoors and cover all windows, leaving one window or door open for the bird to fly out through.
You must not kill birds or destroy their nests. Instead, you must apply for a permit for removal measures from either the Uusimaa Economic Development Centre (protected birds) or the Finnish Wildlife Agency (unprotected birds). The owner of the property or the person carrying out the removal is responsible for obtaining the permit. If you need a statement on the necessity of the measure in order to apply for the permit, you can request the statement from a food inspector.
Control fees
The processing of notifications and inspections are subject to a fee. You can check the prices in the fees for Environmental Health Services (PDF).
In addition to this, an annual basic fee of €150 is charged for food control. The fee applies to food premises listed in the control register at the start of the year. See also the other terms and conditions for the basic fee in the Finnish Food Authority’s basic fee instructions (PDF, in Finnish)(Link leads to external service).