know the food you produce, process, and/or distribute
know the health hazards related to your food and its handling
know the critical points for food safety in your operations
Therefore, you must implement self-monitoring in your food business. Self-monitoring refers to systematic and continuous monitoring of your food operations that you carry out yourself. Self-monitoring must be adequate in relation to the quality and scope of your operations. A self-monitoring plan must be prepared and kept up to date.
Self-monitoring must be followed and records must be kept of its implementation. Records are checked during Oiva inspections conducted by food control authorities. If self-monitoring is not up to date or adequate, food control authorities may require it to be corrected or supplemented.
A person handling easily perishable unpacked food in food premises must hold a hygiene passport in accordance with the Finnish Food Authority model. Hygiene passport tests are organized by hygiene passport examiners.
As a food business operator, you are required to check the hygiene passports of persons participating in the tasks described above and record sufficient information about the hygiene passports in your self-monitoring.
A health status report on salmonella infection as required by the Communicable Diseases Act is required from persons who handle unpacked food served without heating. NOTE! A health status report on salmonella infection does not mean a periodic health examination or other health examination unless it includes a report on salmonella infection. The certificate must state that it is a report on salmonella infection as required by the Communicable Diseases Act.
The report is required from everyone, including, for example, trainees who work at the workplace without an employment relationship for at least one month. The report is also required when there is justified reason to suspect during employment that the employee is a carrier of salmonella bacteria.
The health status report is prepared by occupational health care, your own health center, or student health care. A doctor or nurse assesses the need for salmonella testing in connection with the report.
As a food business operator, you are required to record in your self-monitoring from whom reports are required, from whom they have been checked, and where the reports are stored.
