Outcome. FI: Henkilö ymmärtää omavalvonnan periaatteen ja merkityksen sekä pystyy toteuttamaan omavalvontaa työssään. EN: The person understands the principle and importance of own-check and can carry it out in their work.

Why it matters

Own-check is how a business shows that it controls its hazards day by day, not only on inspection day.

What to know

• Own-check (omavalvonta) is the operator's own system for identifying and controlling hazards in its activity and making sure that food, premises and activity meet the food rules. It is not run by the municipality.
• All food business operators carry it out, including mobile kiosks and sales carts. Its extent takes the size and nature of the business into account.
• The operator records its results with sufficient precision. The description may be written, electronic or partly oral. Own-check must be carried out and results recorded, but it does not have to be a separate written plan.
• The operator follows the own-check and keeps it up to date. Own-check has a named responsible person or persons. Workers know it and follow it, and familiarisation is part of a new worker's induction. Hygienic work practices and instructions belong to it.
• The registration notification of a registered operation includes a description of the own-check.
• The operator is always responsible for food safety; the local authority supervises. The health inspector evaluates the adequacy of own-check but does not prepare or correct it. The operator ensures staff are supervised and instructed or trained in food hygiene according to their work, and must establish, maintain and provide evidence of a food safety culture: management commitment, leadership, awareness, open communication and sufficient resources.
• Good practice guides are voluntary industry guides for identifying and controlling hazards, assessed by Ruokavirasto.

Records

• Records cover implementation, measurements, tests, corrective actions and notifications to authorities. The operator decides how often to record, but deviations and corrective actions are always recorded. The latest test results are kept. Records are available to the supervising authority and show that the own-check is carried out.
• In registered operations records are kept at least one year after the use-by or best-before date, or at least one year from handling if no date is required. In approved premises they are kept at least two years, and at least one year after the date.
• Menus should be kept for several weeks to help investigate a food poisoning.

Traceability

• Traceability is part of own-check. Foods and raw materials are traceable at every stage of production, manufacture and distribution. The operator knows who supplied it and to whom it supplied food, one step back and one step forward.
• In registered operations traceability data is kept at least one year from sending or receiving the food. In approved premises it is kept at least two years after the use-by or best-before date.
• At goods receipt check that the goods are what was ordered, that labels and the delivery note match, and that both include the required information. Good traceability limits health hazards and economic damage and allows an efficient recall.
• The operator publishes the latest inspection report, displayed near the entrance in premises where consumers visit, or easily available online.

Scenario

A new dishwasher records temperatures every morning in a notebook. One day the fridge reads +9 °C. She writes down the deviation and the action taken, and the manager checks the food. When the inspector visits, the records show that the own-check is carried out.

Numbers to remember

Item	Value
Records, registered operations	at least 1 year after the date
Records, approved premises	at least 2 years
Traceability data, registered operations	at least 1 year from sending or receiving
Traceability data, approved premises	at least 2 years after the date
Menus	several weeks

Myth vs reality

• Myth: Only approved premises need own-check. Reality: All operators do.
• Myth: Every business needs a written plan document. Reality: Own-check and recording are required, not a separate plan document.
• Myth: Inspectors write your own-check. Reality: They evaluate it; the operator does it.

In the test

Who does what: the operator does and records, the authority supervises. Records exist to prove that own-check is carried out.