4 The editorial
Today the Finnish food is lively discussed. Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund, arranged a day for food culture. As chairman functioned TV commentator Erkki Toivanen who in spite of many merits does not always propagate for a popular food culture. He speaks in favour of organic food and reminds always that in Finland one can only get broilers never chicken. He wonders why the Finns don’t eat variety meats and game. Excellent suggestions for gourmets but do ordinary Finns eat such delicacies.. We certainly don’t find one and only answer that suits everybody. However the most important question is that we must compete in the hardened competition. If the quality and the price are OK all is well, stresses chief editor Veli Saarenheimo.

6 The well-being of animals is not a matter of course
Aila Rauatmaa, the veterinary of the year, is of the opinion that our meat industry to a greater extent in the marketing should emphasize the strong points of the Finnish farming, such as the lack of diseases and medicines. In three years time Aila Rauatmaa has worked as welfare veterinary.
- I am working with preventive medicine, protection of animals as well as taking care of sick animals, tells Aila.
Her working district is very large and covers eight municipalities. She will probably this year make about 80 visits to the farms.
- We must remember that well kept animals produce more, explains Aila.
She is disappointed in the customers because most of them want to buy cheap meat and are not interested in how it is produced.
- The consumers believe that animals are well kept which is not always the case, stresses Aila. For the present Aila is the only welfare veterinary in Finland.

10 The food interest of school children was celebrated
During the fair Elma2000 in Helsinki Finfood - Finnish Food Information Service, awarded some participants prizes in the campaign “Food&Love”. Mirja Hellstedt from Finfood tells that the campaign was a success. There were numerous participants and the entries were very good. 39 schools took part in the campaign that was aimed at the pupils in the 7-9 classes of the elementary school. 105 entries took part in the competition that was split up in 5 groups. 68 entries competed in the “Beef of minced meat” competition. The pupils could chose between meat from pork, beef, broiler and turkey.

14 Christmas greetings

18 The meat grinder and the recipe of the month
By-products and offals from small slaughterhouses. The working team at Ruoka-Suomi - Food-Finland has published a guide dealing with byproducts and offals. How they can be utilized and how they can be destroyed. Thus one wants to improve the profitability of small slaughterhouses and deboning units. Small entrepreneurs in the food branch improve their profile. In the Finnish food branch operate about 3150 entrepreneurs of which about 90% are small entrepreneurs with less than 20 employees. 90 % of those small entrepreneurs are located in the provinces and use the raw materials of the neighborhood. Small entrepreneurs concentrate on a flexible service and a rich assortment. It is very advantageous if they are able to develop a quality brand. A brand guarantees an uniform quality, innovative product development and a better marketing. The working group Food Finland wants to support this development. The popularity of organic food is growing. In the Nordic countries the sales of organic food grew by 10 % during the years 2006-2007. Bad economic realities have not yet influenced the sales of organic food.
- Minna Kurunsaari Vice President at Kesko Food Stores points out that it is to early to tell how the economical situation will influence the sales of organic products. At Kesko the most popular ecological food products are tomatoes, carrots, eggs and processed meat products. Coming: Anuga FoodTec. The fair will be arranged for the fifth time in Cologne 10.-13. March 2009. About 1200 exhibitors from about 40 countries will take part.. The fair focuses on processing- and package hygiene, storage and logistics. The recipe of the month is “Festive turkey/broiler loaf.”

22 Christmas at Kauttua Club
Today the former club is transformed into a restaurant and a hotel. The building is situated in traditional mill surroundings. Today it is part of the Fazer Amica–restaurants and is open all the year round. Christmas time is a very lively and hectic period with Christmas feasts, lunches and dinners. Then traditional delicacies are served. Only local raw materials are used; veal, cheeses, fish, mushrooms and vegetables. From their own garden they get apples, cherries and plums.

26 The Finnish Packaging Association arranged a conference dealing with the environment
The name of the PAK 2008 conference was “Environment, responsibility and competitiveness”. At the conference the participants discussed what demands the international markets and the ethical side of the legislation make upon the packaging branch. Each theme was presented by Finnish or international experts. Questions concerning suitable materials, climatic conditions and packaging were discussed. In the future we will get new markings concerning climate. It is hoped that the marks are clear and visible.

28 A superior should have the spark
At the ETM-seminar, arranged by the Mentor-club, tangible proposals regarding a qualitative superintendence were put forward. The Mentor-club has been operating for ten years and is sponsored by the Finnish Food and Drink Industries Federation FFDIF and Bertel Paulig, founder of the club. The club has several times proposed an ETM examination that is arranged by Helsinki University. This year a new lectureship has been founded in Vik that is in charge of organization and management and the ETM-exam concerning environmental questions.

30 The meat processors met in Gothenburg in Sweden
The name of the conference was “The big Chark Day” and it was a big success. In Sweden the meat branch is the second big branch within the food sector. The bakery branch is the biggest. Åke Rutegård, managing director of Kött-och Charkföretagen - the Meat- and Chark entrepreneurs, spoke about the differences between Sweden and Finland. The Swedish meat enterprises are small and middle-sized whereas they in Finland in the main are big. He mentioned also that even if the consumption of beef has declined in Sweden Sweden still is the third biggest consumer of beef in EU. Only France and Denmark are bigger consumers. He also told that meat in Sweden is used in many different ways. The TV-Chef Tina Nordström hoped that the trade in a higher degree should inform the consumers how to prepare different wholesale cuts. She told that she herself is very particular regarding the origin of meat and that she herself consumes only Swedish meat. Many participants at the congress were of the opinion that organic meat is a luxury.

35 Changes in package labels
EU is behind the development of the legislation regarding packages labels. Soon we will get new regulations. The changes concern the origin, nutritive value and the size of the text. The changes will also deal with the percentage of salt. The Ministry of Trade and Industry renewed the regulations 2007.

36 Machines and packages
The IPA fair for meat products and fish processing equipment and the packaging fair Emballage were arranged in Paris, the last time in this shape.. After two years both fairs will be arranged together with the SIAL-food fair 17.21 October 2010. This year the IPA/Emballage fairs had more than 100 000 visitors, one third of whom came from abroad. About 600 entrepreneurs were on show at the IPA fair and 2200 entrepreneurs showed their products at the Emballage fair.
The IPA fair is especially recommended for Finnish professionals in the meat branch. The equipment was well exhibited and the information about the equipment was very good. The French are very interested in the fair. We must remember that the local shops in Paris are very popular and very many-sided and have their own profile, whereas we in Finland have very few local shops left.

40 How are things at Bamach?
Since the year 2004 the new owner of Bamach is Finnvacum Oy. Bamach is leading supplier of packaging machines and materials to the meat, fish and dairy industries. The service organization covers the whole country. 30 % of the turnover comes from deliveries to the convenience food branch. The turnover of the concern Finnvacum was 2008 about 2 million euro. The concern employs about 50 people. To the parent firm belongs also PM Digi Oy. They operate in Finland, Russia and the Baltic.

42 Index of services

52 My work
Rauno Pitkänen constructs and serves meat grinders.. When he, 16 year old, with his parents moved to Helsinki it was planned that he should study equipment and machines at a vocational school. The studies however lasted only one day because Rauno started to work at the meat processing machine manufacturer Koneteollisuus. This year he has worked there for 35 years. Each meat grinder has to pass a very careful test before it is delivered to the customer.
- Today there are meat grinders in nearly every food store and are much used, so my work is split up in two even parts. I construct grinders and I serve them, explains Rauno.
When the customers have problems they can phone Rauno already after half past five in the morning.
- It is important to listen very carefully when the customer describes his problem. Thus I can recognize the fault already during the call and take into account the wishes and requirements of the customer, tells Rauno who has learned his profession from good fellow-workers.
- The most important thing is to have good fellow-workers and a well-known working environment, and that I have had, explains Rauno.
He keeps himself in shape by swimming with his daughter in an indoor swimming pool and he also swims alone once a week in a hole in the ice. - There I meat some pals and together we take a sauna, tells Rauno.

62 Eviras pages deal with the auto control of small entrepreneurs and the HACCP directive
This time it deals with slaughter and deboning of poultry. A small slaughterhouse is allowed to slaughter maximum 150 000 birds yearly. In deboning units that produce 5000 kg boneless meat of poultry/week salmonella checks must be made at least twice a year.

64 The column
The columnist Sakari Nupponen, editor at the evening paper Ilta-Sanomat, writes this time about the arrival of Christmas. When Sakari Nupponen asked his family what they wanted at the Christmas dinner –table the teenager replied at return. “Smoked salmon and spawn”. That should be easy to arrange. The elder daughter informed that she wanted “Christmas ham and all the dishes au gratin. I have a very traditional taste”, she explained. But a serious problem arose when the son of the family announced that the wanted ”turkey grandmas style at the cottage…..How could he remember the Christmas dinners of his childhood? We solved the problem by calling Grandma and by preparing the turkey together.
But when Sakari and his wife should chose their delicacies they chose canned peas, served in their home only at Christmas.
- Christmas passes from generation to generation. It changes slowly and is like a rug that becomes richer and richer, tells Sakari Nupponen and wishes a Happy Christmas!

Translation: Nina Hackman