Wild Food from Finland!

Wild food – berries, mush­rooms, wild herbs and veg­eta­bles as well as fish, game and rein­deer – is de­rived straight from Arc­tic Finnish na­ture.

The gath­er­ing of wild plants, such as wild herbs, for own use is per­mit­ted, as long as the so-called ev­ery man’s rights are ob­served, and not in any way re­stricted by food laws. Com­mer­cial op­er­a­tion, e.g. if the prod­ucts are sold falls un­der the scope of food laws.

Pur­suant to food laws, the li­a­bil­ity of the op­er­a­tor cov­ers not only the safety of their prod­ucts, but also aware­ness of and com­pli­ance with laws and reg­u­la­tions. As far as wild plants are con­cerned, Reg­u­la­tion (EC) No 258/97 on novel foods and Reg­u­la­tion (EC) No 1924/2006 on nu­tri­tion and health claims should par­tic­u­larly be taken into con­sid­er­a­tion, in ad­di­tion to gen­eral food reg­u­la­tions.

Wild food is part of Finnish food culture

It is truly hard to find a Finn who has not ever been gath­er­ing some wild food. Fin­land has a strong tra­di­tion of pick­ing berries and mush­rooms, sup­ported by the Ev­ery­man’s Right of pub­lic ac­cess to the wilder­ness. Fish­ing is of great in­ter­est in the land of thou­sands of lakes and is­lands. Fin­land’s hunt­ing cul­ture is based on ac­tive mem­bers and hunt­ing com­mu­ni­ties.

Allergies and illnesses

Many of the wild plants are poi­sonous. The safety of the plant as food can­not be de­ter­mined on the ba­sis of its ap­pear­ance and there­fore ev­ery­body gath­er­ing wild plants must learn to iden­tify the plants cor­rectly.

Some wild plants can cause symp­toms of al­ler­gies, so new plants should be care­fully in­tro­duced to the diet. Wild veg­eta­bles con­tain­ing ox­alic acid is not rec­om­mended for kid­ney ail­ments suf­fer­ers. Peo­ple with chronic dis­eases or suf­fer­ing from de­te­ri­o­rat­ing health con­di­tion should make sure that wild veg­eta­bles fit their diet.

Gather only wild plants that you com­pletely rec­og­nize!! Con­tact Poi­son In­for­ma­tion Cen­ter im­me­di­ately if any in­ci­dents oc­cur: 09 471 977

Further information in English about wild herbs & vegetables:

• www.lu­on­to­portti.fi
• www.ark­tise­taromit.fi
• www.suomen­lu­oto.fi 
• www.hor­toilu.fi 

Mushrooms Guides

Here are few ex­am­ples of mush­rooms guides.  Some are in Eng­lish, and some are avail­able only in Finnish.

You may find more ap­pli­ca­tions and eBooks from app-store web­sites of mo­bile phone providers.

• Mush­rooms – Pro Na­ture Guide 
• Mush­room Book
• Sieniopas mo­bi­ililait­teelle
• Sienikirja mo­bi­ililait­teelle

NatureGate mobile App

Re­newed Na­ture­Gate app en­ables you to eas­ily iden­tify flow­ers, birds, but­ter­flies and fishes you have spot­ted. The ap­pli­ca­tion is a part of the pop­u­lar and award-win­ning Na­ture­Gate web­site.