A food business operator who manufactures or imports a food fortified with vitamins and/or minerals, or has such food manufactured, must file written notification on placing a fortified food on the market with the Finnish Food Authority. Legal provisions do not specify when this notification must be filed, but in order to ensure effective control, it should be done before the food is placed on the market.
A notification must also be filed when the composition of a fortified food changes with regard to the added vitamins or minerals or when the fortified food is removed from the market.
The fortification notification is submitted via the Finnish Food Authority's electronic service. Logging into the electronic service is done with Suomi.fi e-identification and Suomi.fi e-authorizations. Electronic notification forms are available in Finnish, Swedish and English.
If the food business operator cannot, for one reason or another, submit the notification via the electronic service, the notification can also be filled out without using the electronic service by using a notification form. In this case, the notification is to be sent to Finnish Food Authority's Registry at: The Finnish Food Authority / Registry, PL 200, 00027 Ruokavirasto, or kirjaamo@ruokavirasto.fi .
The Finnish Food Authority considers the obligation to submit a notification fulfilled when the notification, complete with all the required information and enclosures, is received at Finnish Food Authority.
The notification must be accompanied by a model of the package labelling used for the fortified food concerned. The model label must be clear and easily legible.
The Finnish Food Authority acknowledges the receipt of the notification and also informs the relevant municipality of the notification. The Finnish Food Authority does not evaluate the regulatory conformance of the composition or labelling of the food fortified with vitamins and/or minerals on the basis of the notification. The food business operator is responsible for ensuring that the fortified food is in conformance with the Fortification Regulation and other legislation pertaining to food.
A fee is charged for the processing of notifications that pertain to the placing of the product on the market or to the changing of the composition as stipulated in the Decision of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry on the fees charged for services produced by the Finnish Food Authority. No fee is charged for notifications of the removal of products from the market.
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.