10 The Karelian meat processor (Karelian Lihajaloste) rises after the fire. In the beginning of April the entrepreneur arranged a feast when opening their new production lines. In autumn 2000 was 2200 square meters destroyed in a fire. On Monday 23 of October in the factory work went on as usual when suddenly smoke appeared into the production building. The smoke was due to a short circuit in the roof region. Although the personnel immediately started the fire-fighting operations and the fire brigade soon arrived the building burnt down to the ground. Luckily the insurances were in order. Today the premises are rebuilt and renovated.
In connection with the opening ceremonies the founder of the enterprise, chairman of the board Martti Puustinen, was awarded the Finnish Enterprises badge for merit the “Diamond cross” for enterprising during 30 years.
The enterprise is today above all known as producer of pizza strips. According to Martti Puustinen the enterprise is one of the biggest producers of Pizza hams in Finland, more than one million kg/yearly. The turnover of the enterprise is about 2 million euro/year. Their customers are institutional kitchens, pizzerias, restaurants, bakeries, the wholesale and the retail trade.

14 The food watchers speak about health. When the Finnish Consumers´ Association in autumn 2006 made an inquiry concerning the diet of building workers several serious shortages were observed. A campaign was started in order to improve the diet of the building workers and the students in the branch. The Finnish Consumers´ Association and the Construction Trade Union are carrying through the project and it is carried out in a new way. The information is not given by experts “from above” but personally by three building workers who have been trained to act as ”food watchers”. They inform their colleagues about a healthy diet. Most important is to inform the workers that they must eat a meal also during the working day.
- Regular meals increase the safety in the place of work and at the same time it is easier to keep the weight under control, explains food officer Annikka Marniemi at the Finnish Consumers´ Association.
The food watchers are celebrities. The local newspapers have written articles about them and they have appeared in radio and TV. During the period September-December they had personally met 5000 building workers.

18 The meat grinder and the recipe of the month.
Reindeer breeding has got new threads and challenges. The biggest problems for the reindeer herdsmen is today the big amount of animals in relation to the area of reindeer pastures. At the same time the production chain is ineffective and fragile. The ace of the branch is of course the tasty and delicious reindeer meat. The collaboration between the producers is good but unfortunately the collaboration with the slaughterhouses and the retail trade leaves much to be desired.
The quality of the food chain ought to be improved. In several member states of EU quality systems for foodstuffs and their marking has been taken into use. In Finland we have not yet a standardized documentation. At the moment a project named “Value creation by quality work: Development and documentation of a national quality system of the food chain” is going on and will last for two years.
The star product of the year 2008 will be appointed at the “Finnish Food congress 2008” in Helsinki which is the biggest training occasion of the food branch in Finland. 71 products were nominated. From the retail trade 9 products and from the institutional kitchens 3 products went to the finals.
The singer Vuokko Hovatta has been appointed the prize ”Local shop-customer of the year 2008” by the Siwa-chain. With the prize the Siwa-chain wants to draw public attention to how important local shops are for the environment. Vuokko Hovatta became famous when singing in the band “Ultra Bra”. She is a regular customer in her local shop and does not own a car.
The ERA -program got the “Health prize of the year”. Sitras ERA program is a food and nutrition program aimed at children and youngsters. This year it focuses on school meals.
Saarioinen got a prize for its porridges. The Nielsen Company has appointed Saarioinens porridges that can be warmed as the best product of the daily trade. The product nominated must have news value; it must win noticeable shares of the market, increase the sales of the whole product group and enrich the assortment of the consumers. In spring 2007 Saarioinen introduced on the markets semolina- and rice porridges in “one portion packages” that can be warmed. The porridges became soon very popular and during the period May - December one million portions were sold.
Steaks and meatballs in the freezer. In April 2008 the entrepreneur Lagerblad Foods put on the market its first series aimed at the consumers. The series consists of five Finnish classic dishes; Lindströms steak, meat patties of minced liver, hamburgers, meatballs and vegetable balls. The products are prepared and deepfreezed. The size of the packages varies between 450- 570 g.
Pigs are today transported in vehicles with three stories. The vehicles carry 25% more pigs than vehicles with only two stories. The ventilation is efficient and after one year of probation, during which the behavior of the animals has been carefully controlled, the results are positive.
Fintorus helps the export to Russia. Within the scope of the ERA-program Sitra has founded a logistic company Fintorus that shall make it easier to export, mainly to St. Petersburg. Fintorus and its Russian subsidiary company OOO Finprod will help Finnish small entrepreneurs in the food branch with for instance export formalities, logistics and customer connections.
The recipe of the month is “Asian balls of pork”.

22 In the schools porridge is a popular dish. In a school the pupils were of the opinion that the most popular dish was salmon soup, followed by frankfurters with potato purée and then came the porridges. According to Ritva Kulovuori and Seija Lukula, the cooks of the school, the porridge is the most popular dish. All food is cooked at the school for 300 pupils and some ten adults. About 30 pre-school children and 60 children from the afternoon club also eat in the school.

26 Appointments. At Atria Suomi has per 7.4.2008 Vilhelmiina Erkkola been appointed head of the poultry products and Hannu Pietilä has per 15.04. 2008 been appointed production manager, area of responsibility fat- and by-products. Petri Linkoneva has per 1.9. 2008 been appointed branch manager at the Finnish Food and Drink Industries Federation. Last autumn the oldest society in the Finnish food branch “The Finnish Society of Food Science and Technology” reached 60 years of age. Jarmo E A Heinonen has been chosen chairman of the society for the year 2008.

28 The summer job teaches the basics. Most students work during the summer holidays. Either their work is part of their studies or it gives experiences and practical attainments in quite another branch. Those who work in the meat branch have a big responsibility but also a unique possibility to learn a lot. Reciprocal confidence, frankness and to keep to what one has agreed on help the employer and the employee to achieve mutual purposes. The summer workers do the works agreed. Head of production at Tapola Eero Kirveslahti, tells that they this summer have 15 summer workers and that they chose them already in January. Most of the summer workers work in the production. Some of them have worked at Tapola during the term; they know their work and do not need further training. The employees in the production work in teams and the older workers advise, guide and supervise the younger ones so that they cope with their work. The foreman is very important. At the meat house Snellman there is no shortage of summer workers. Lena Holmberg, personal officer at Snellman, tells that they got 750 applications and that they have employed about 170-180 summer workers. Some of them have earlier worked for Snellman. Lena Holmberg points out that the foreman is very important. If the work of the foreman is well done problems can be avoided and when there occurs problems they are rapidly solved.
- The employer must show the employees how to do the practical job, how to deal with hygiene, safety and quality. The employees for their part must ask if something still is unclear, stresses Lena Holmberg.

32 Rights and obligations provide the setting for work. The rights and the obligations of the employer and the employee are always based on the work legislation and often on the labor agreement.

33 Working qualifications by apprenticeship training. According to school-inspector Elina Kivi apprenticeship training suits very well the meat branch. The practical work and the theoretic teaching train skilled workers for the meat branch. The entrepreneur Wursti uses apprenticeship training to train its personnel. The local bureau on apprenticeship pays the travels to the educational institution if it is situated outside the local authority of the pupil. The student gets also a daily allowance if the employer does not pay salary during the period. The daily allowance is 15 euro/day. The training is free of charge both for the employer and the pupil.

35 Conto con carne - Meat gives salary and cold cuts. Chili con carne is a Mexican meat dish with chili pepper. In Spanish means:
chili=chili pepper
con=with
carne=meat
Conto con carne=Meat gives a living.

38 Food & Love. In the campaign “Food & Love” the best dish based on minced meat is planned. The meat branch wants to inform youngsters who start their vocational training about the food branch, about healthy food and foodstuffs. The drive started last year and continues during the autumn. This year the drive focuses on the meat branch and one competition is to create “Finland’s best patty of minced meat”. The campaign culminates at the Elma Fair in Helsinki 7.11. 2008 when the best projects are awarded prizes.

40 The students in the meat branch are very motivated because they know that they will get a job. The Tampere College Hervanta Institute offers a first degree in the meat branch. Young people are not easily interested in the meat branch even if they find the studies interesting and appreciate that they certainly will get a job. The training lasts three years, includes120 units and qualifies for work in the meat industry, the convenience-food and food industries and in the food trade.

44 The Meat Fair trained and entertained. During the 1970 -and 1980 -ties the Meat Fair principally informed the consumers about meat and meat products. All competing entrepreneurs gathered together with the intention to heighten the status of meat, promote the professional skill and to develop the technique within the branch. The Meat Fair vitally promoted the development of the meat branch. The participants came from all over the country and at the most the fair was visited by about 20 000 persons. The association was dissolved in 2006. The Elco and the PacTec Fairs have partly continued along the same lines but keep a certain distance to the consumers.

48 How are things at Thermisol Oy? The company was founded in 1962 and specializes in the production and processing of EPS (expanded polystyrene). Today Thermisol is part of the international building material manufacturer and supplier CRH Group. Thermisol Oy is divided into two profit units: Insulation and Panels. The main products of the Insulation unit are THERMISOL building insulation, professional customer products and different THERMISOL industrial products. The Panel unit produces THERMISOL sandwich panels. Thermisol Oy employs approximately 105 people and the turnover was 41 million euro in 2006.

50 Index of services.

60 My work.” The Peltola family imports meat. The membership in EU made it possible to import beef, pork and poultry meat. KPP Impex was one of the first firms that started to import. The family business was founded in 1994 and today the second generation is at the helm and is run by Pasi Peltola. Originally Pasi wanted to become restaurateur and educated himself at the Haaga Institute. However the night shifts in the branch were very tuff and Pasi joined his fathers Kyösti Peltolas recently founded import firm. Today Kyösti Peltola is chairman of the board and summer stand-in when Pasi is on his summer holidays. Most of the work is selling and to handle customer connections.
- Honesty and straightforwardness are very important and goes without saying in the hard competition, stresses Pasi. The main products of the firm are pork, beef and poultry meat and the customers come from the processing industry.

62 Eviras pages deal this time with statistics on former foodstuffs of animal origin. By the beginning of this year all food shops and the wholesale trade have to keep statistics on former foodstuffs of animal origin. The reason can be rottenness, errors in the production or defect packages, in all it is a question of unsold products. Former foodstuffs of animal origin are raw meat, poultry meat, fish, fish waste, milk, egg, bacon, cured meat, ham, raw sausages and products that contain these raw materials. Bakery products that contain milk and egg do not belong to this group. The statistics shall be sent to Evira quarterly. With this action one wants to prevent the spreading of diseases. Raw, former foodstuffs of animal origin, can only be destroyed in special establishments.

64 The columnist Sakari Nupponen, financial journalist at the evening paper Ilta-Sanomat is born 1956 and a romantic person. This time he points out how strongly we are influenced by the food we eat in our childhood. Immigrants try to find and eat food they aet in their native country but their children born in Finland, have often already accepted our Finnish food. The marketing of today has realized that and names their products “Grandma’s meat rolls” and “Grandma’s steak”.
- But the dishes vary from generation to generation. The first dish I myself prepared was pork sauce, my son prepares noodles. The center for my grandma’s kitchens was a tureen, which was placed on the table only on Sundays. The delicious thickened gravy was one of the highlights of my childhood. My grandma’s recipes were often based on butter but among her recipes there was a press cutting with the headline ”The oat cream lowers the cholesterol”. I myself did not like the cream but for my grandma it was a passion, explains Sakari Nupponen.

Translation: Nina Hackman.