About 40 percent of restaurants and institutional kitchens go uninspected every year because of a shortage of municipal health inspectors. The largest shortfall is in western and southern Finland, says Turun Sanomat.
Issues of food safety rise to the fore during exceptionally warm periods such as this summer.
According to a study by health officials in the Turku region, ice cream stands often have shoddy food hygiene. The survey suggests that one in five scoops of ice cream sold is of dubious quality, with nine percent rated as poor. The most common problem is high levels of coliform bacteria.
However Turku city hygienist Esko Salonen says that there is no reason for panic.
"Coliform bacteria do not necessarily cause any problems for those who eat ice cream, since these bacteria are naturally present in the human digestive system," he says.
