You will need to take a hygiene proficiency test and obtain hygiene passport if you 

• Handle unpackaged perishable foodstuffs at your workplace and
• Work in a restaurant, café, fast food chain, bakery, fast food shop, food factory or at other food premises.

You will need a hygiene passport even if you are a trainee, a student or an employer (if the conditions above apply).

If you fulfill the conditions above, you will need to obtain a hygiene passport within 3 months from starting your work within the food sector. This term shall be calculated from your first work on food premises. It is permitted to work on food premises for the first 3 months without a hygiene passport, but if you fail to obtain your passport within 3 months, you will not be allowed to continue your work or to start working with another employer in the food industry.   

Certain positions do not require a hygiene passport. On the web pages of the Finnish Food Authority you can check whether your position requires that you possess a hygiene passport. Finnish Food Authority provides a comprehensive table where you will see which groups do not require hygiene passports even though they work with handling unpackaged perishable foodstuffs on food premises. 

Even if you do not require a hygiene passport, you still must be knowledgeable of basic food hygiene if you work on food premises. Employers are responsible for educating all their employees about food hygiene. It is also the responsibility of employer to make sure all employees who require hygiene passport – obtain it. 

A hygiene passport is a document consisting of 2 parts: a proficiency certificate document (in paper format) and a hygiene proficiency card. Both parts of hygiene proficiency certificate are of equal value and any of them can be used as a proof of hygiene knowledge for the employer. 

In order to get a hygiene passport, you either need to have a suitable education in the food sector or pass hygiene proficiency test. 
Hygiene proficiency tests are organized in different parts of Finland by over 2000 independent examiners approved by Finnish Food Authority. Independent examiners are also responsible for issuing hygiene passports. Finnish Food Authority does not arrange itself any exams and does not issue hygiene passports. 

Before taking your official hygiene proficiency test, practice mock tests on our website. This will help you understand whether your knowledge is sufficient to pass the real test. Practice makes perfect!

The list of hygiene proficiency examiners approved by Finnish Food Authority can be found on their official web pages. You can easily find hygiene proficiency test centers closest to your area by postal index.

Before you can start your hygiene passport test, you need to prove your identity. This is necessary in order to make sure that the test is performed by the same individual who will receive the hygiene passport.  

• Finnish ID card
• Finnish passport
• Finnish Kela card
• Finnish driver’s licence 
• Foreign ID card
• Foreign passport
• Residence permit card granted by the Finnish Immigration Service 
• Temporary identity verification document issued by an authority (Issued by the Police) which contains a copy of the passport, a stamp of the authority and a note that the passport is held by the authority until further notice. 
• Refugee travel document (unless the document states that it has not been possible to reliably verify the identity of the holder of the document)
• Alien’s passport (unless the passport states that it has not been possible to reliably verify the identity of the holder of the document)

Once obtained, the hygiene passport is valid until further notice. This means that the passport is valid until possible law change when a certain validity period for hygiene passport may be introduced. According to current regulations, there is no such validity limitation for hygiene passports. The passport is valid from the day when it was issued.

Note that if you lose both parts of the hygiene passport and your proficiency examiner does not have your proficiency test results archived, you will need to do the test again (unless your hygiene passport was granted to you based on your education).