The Finnish Grocery Trade Association is a group thatincludes almost all of the country's shops dealing in daily retail trade items.

At present, the "apparent age" benchmark is23. Anyone who is judged by sales personnel to be 23 years old or younger mustproduce an ID before purchasing tobacco or alcohol. The legal age for sales oftobacco and the mid-strength alcoholic beverages sold in groceries is 18.

"We hope that age checks and showing IDs willbecome a more common practice, something that becomes a matter of course forboth sales people and for customers," says the Association's directorIlkka Nieminen. 

It is likely that the introduction of checking IDs foranyone who looks under 30 will slow down checkouts, especially in largersupermarkets.