Finland Times

 

File Photo Lehtikuva.

Strict regulations have forced some Finnish natural product companies to consider outsourcing, reports the Finnish language newspaper consortium Lännen Media.

 

According to the report, bitter relations with the Food Safety Authority-Evira have prompted the companies to relocate their activities abroad.

 

Many of the natural products companies believe new job creation and development activities in the sector are being slowed down by bureaucracy in Evira.

 

The disputes revolve around the list of plants that can be used in food processing. 

 

The regulations are based on the European Union’s new food safety regulation. “[The regulations] are good enough, for example, for German markets, but there are many product lines [in Germany] that would not get approved in Finland,” the chairman of the network of Finnish nature entrepreneurs, Katja Misikangas told the Lännen Media.

 

Evira said it applies regulations more rigorously than other EU member states. 

 

According to Evira, companies have tried to avoid expensive approval fees for novel food products by assuring that the plants used in their products have traditionally been used as food.