Food safety enforcement at the local level in Finland: Risk-basis, efficacy and consistency
Year: 2018
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Efficacious and consistent enforcement of food safety legislation is a cornerstone in protecting public health and preventing distorted competition between food business operators (FBOs). In case of non-compliance, food control authorities must provide the FBO with advice and requests to ensure that the FBO corrects the violation. If these actions do not induce compliance or the operations cause a health hazard, food control authorities are to employ administrative enforcement measures such as orders or prohibitions. The objective of this thesis was to explore the risk-basis, efficacy and consistency of using administrative enforcement measures in local official food control in Finland. In addition, the aim was to investigate the importance and uniformity of local official food control from the perspective of FBOs. The methods include analysis of administrative enforcement decisions and inspection reports made by local authorities, survey and interview of local food control officials and survey of FBOs in approved dairy, fishery and meat establishments under local official food control. The results indicate that administrative enforcement measures are important control actions undertaken to force FBOs to correct multiple, recurrent or critical food safety violations. The enforcement process was initiated more rapidly and the duration of the process was shorter in critical than in non-critical food safety violations. However, the use of enforcement measures was often preceded with repeated requests to correct non-compliances, and the duration of enforcement processes was often rather long. Food control officials perceived the process as laborious and slow, and the use of enforcement measures varied among and within the local food control units. Some units had a strong routine for using the measures, while others used them rarely or not at all. Unclear alignments and uncertainty in using enforcement measures decreased the efficacy and consistency of enforcement. Many officials perceived the guidelines of the new disclosure system of inspection reports, the Oiva system, as helpful in enhancing the consistency of using enforcement measures. Respondent FBOs in approved dairy, fishery and meat establishments considered official food control to be important for food safety and appeared to be generally satisfied with its quality. However, many FBOs perceived the consistency of official food control as poor, and particularly small-sized FBOs were critical of the relevance of control actions. The Oiva system raised early-stage concerns among FBOs regarding the fairness and consistency of control. A perception of good co-operation with the official by FBOs was associated with their positive views about official food control and its importance. The results of this thesis indicate that local food safety enforcement is generally risk-based and control actions are progressively adjusted. However, the efficacy and consistency of using administrative enforcement measures could be improved and further efforts are needed to establish the Oiva system and unify the interpretations. Provision of more practical training for officials and further development of operating instructions and peer-review systems between and within control units would likely increase the efficacy and consistency of enforcement. Improving the consistency of control actions would also enhance the trust of FBOs in the relevance and justness of control.
Source: Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja
Author: Karoliina Kettunen
Language: English
Topic: Food Safety and Hygiene
Subfield: Food Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2799722429