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Food Industry:
FUNCTIONAL FOOD FOR THE FUTURE WELL
BEING
The Finnish food industry ranks fourth in terms of the value
of its output after the metal, forest and chemical industries.
The principal sectors in the food industry are the meat processing,
bakery, dairy, and malt and soft drinks industries.
Finland’s food exports amounted to 995 million Euros
in 2001. The leading export products were cheese, sugar chemistry
products, butter, alcoholic beverages, pork and chocolate.
The food industry’s output generated abroad totalled
some 1,350 million Euros. Almost 90 per cent of the food consumed
in Finland is produced nationally.
The food chain is also a major employer: the entire chain
provides work for some 300,000 wage and salary earners, 40,000
of whom are employed by the food industry. In terms of the
number of employees, the food industry is Finland’s third
biggest.
Since Finland’s membership in the EU, competition in
the sector has increased, but Finland’s food and drink
industry has held its own quite well. Its success is largely
based on the use of domestically produced ingredients of the
highest quality. The cold climate is an effective deterrent
to plant diseases and animal pests, thus reducing the amount
of pesticides used. Plants and crops are exceptionally pure
and free of contaminants.
Quality strategy for the food chain
Today all over the world people want to know more about the
food they eat - and thus quality has become a prime consideration.
It is important to know from where food products originate,
how they have been produced and how they are involved in the
various phases of the production chain. This is the reason
for the Finnish food industry working in cooperation with
the entire food production chain to unify its activities into
a national quality strategy that is guaranteed by the ISO
9000 quality system.
Finland’s foodstuffs production operates within the
EU’s single market. Its national competitiveness is based
on uncompromising solutions in the pursuit of quality, the
level of which exceeds the lowest legal levels throughout
the entire production.
In Finland the entire food chain from the field to the table
has committed itself to the quality strategy of the national
food economy. The objective is to ensure that the food industry
produces foodstuffs with the focus on systematic high-quality
work. This work is centred on customer satisfaction, profitability
and competitiveness, while maintaining respect for human beings,
animals and the environment. All the phases in the value chain
- including agriculture - will be brought under systematic
quality and environmental control by 2006. The tools for this
include internationally acknowledged quality and environmental
systems, particularly the systems in the ISO standards.
The quality work is aimed at consumers being able to trust
the quality of Finnish food and at operators throughout the
entire production chain developing their own activities as
well as cooperation inside the chain.
Research into foodstuffs
The technological know-how of the Finnish food industry stands
at a high level, and product development has led to the creation
of many internationally successful products. Investment by
the food industry in research and development is good in international
terms. In recent years companies have invested 50 million
Euros in product development activities, i.e. about three
per cent of the sector’s added value.
The extensive and efficient research operations promote domestic
food production and processing while at the same time following
the principles of sustainable development.
A food is functional (health-promoting) if, in addition to
the normal nutritional effect, it has been scientifically
proven to have an effect that promotes or maintains a person’s
health, physical performance or mental well-being and/or it
reduces the risk of illness. They can be safely used as part
of a varied diet.
The worldwide market for functional foods was estimated at
54 billion Euros in 2001. It is expected to increase by about
five per cent a year to 70 billion Euros by 2006. In Finland
the food industry and research are investing heavily in developing
functional foods. The effects of food on health are being
examined throughout the entire food chain.
The development of functional foods is consumer-responsive.
The expertise of medicine has also been strongly linked to
the development work, because a knowledge of the mechanism
of how illnesses originate and research into them are extremely
important.
Published
2003
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