How to check a food hygiene score

What are food hygiene ratings?

Food hygiene ratings are scores that are given to businesses to let the public know how good their hygiene standards are.

When deciding whether to try a new takeaway or go out to a certain restaurant, we may consider certain factors, for example the levels of service, the price or the quality of the food on offer. Food hygiene, however, is probably the most important factor to consider because food that is handled in an unsafe and unhygienic way can make us feel very ill.

When a business is given a food hygiene score that is accessible to the public:

It helps consumers to make informed choices
It helps to protect public health
It encourages compliance with law and best practice

When deciding where to give your custom to, you may be wondering how to check a food hygiene score and what the scores and ratings mean. As part of the national Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS), food vendors are rated from 0-5 based on a variety of criteria to allow people to make informed choices about where to dine out or buy food from. Businesses are inspected and scored based on the findings of the inspector and this information is stored online via the Food Standards Agency website and Scores on the Doors website.

A score of 0 indicates that there are serious concerns around the safety of food in an establishment. A score of 5 suggests that a business is performing well, remaining compliant and taking their legal responsibilities seriously.

Ratings may also be accessible in other places, for example a sticker in the window of an establishment or on the marketing materials for a business.

Food hygiene scores do not reflect the quality of the food, simply how safe and hygienic the premises are and how compliant their procedures are. This includes:

How safely food is handled
Whether food is stored correctly
How food is prepared
The general cleanliness of facilities
How food safety is managed

Ratings only provide a snapshot of what is found when the inspection is carried out.

Why check the ratings?

Checking the ratings of a food business gives us an idea of how safe and hygienic the food they serve is likely to be. A business with a high rating is more likely to provide safe food, however a high rating is not an absolute guarantee that there will be no problems.

Businesses with high ratings usually want to publicise their success and will proudly display their rating and may mention their hygiene score on their website, social media and in other marketing materials. If you notice that a business does not seem to mention their hygiene rating, there is a possibility that this is because they would rather keep quiet about it.

As well as knowing how to check food hygiene ratings, it is important to understand what they mean:

5 – hygiene standards are very good

4 – hygiene standards are good

3 – hygiene standards are generally satisfactory

2 – some improvement is necessary

1 – major improvement is required

0 – urgent improvement is required

The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme helps consumers make more informed choices about where to eat. The scheme may also motivate businesses to improve their practices, as places with a higher rating enjoy a better reputation and will be more attractive to potential customers and future employees. It can also protect people from consuming food that may be contaminated or otherwise unsafe.

Consequences of poor food hygiene

Food that is handled, stored or prepared in an unhygienic way risks becoming contaminated with bacteria, chemicals or physical contaminants. A 2020 scientific review by the Food Standards Agency estimated that there are over 2 million cases of foodborne illness in the UK each year.

Food that is contaminated with bacteria can lead to food poisoning which can be very unpleasant and in rare cases can be fatal. Bacteria that cause serious health problems include:

E coli and campylobacter
Salmonella

Food poisoning symptoms usually come on within a few hours of eating contaminated food. The symptoms of food poisoning are:

Nausea
Sickness
Diarrhoea
A high temperature/ fever
Tiredness
Generally feeling unwell

Although food poisoning can make us feel extremely ill and can affect us for several days, it can usually be treated at home with plenty of fluids and rest. However, food poisoning can be extremely serious for the very young or very old or those with serious health conditions.

Poor hygiene practices and poor housekeeping can lead to food becoming contaminated by physical contaminants or biological contaminants. These contaminants are foreign objects that accidentally enter food due to insufficient hygiene, careless preparation or poor storage. Examples of contaminants include insects, pieces of packaging, fingernails, hair, tin foil and plasters.

Contaminated food can lead to illness and can cause significant distress to customers. Foreign objects in food also pose a choking hazard.

Which businesses are subject to inspection

Ratings are typically given to businesses who prepare, supply or store food, for example:

Restaurants, pubs, cafes or takeaways
Food vans or stalls
Hotels
Supermarkets and shops
Schools hospitals and care homes

Some businesses are exempt from the ratings system, despite requiring inspections, such as:

Low-risk businesses who sell pre-packed food that does not need to be frigerated (for example a newsagent selling sweets and crisps)
Childminders, nannies or people who provide meals as part of in-home care

How often are inspections?

Each local authority will plan out a program of inspections for the year. How often a business is inspected to check their food hygiene rating depends on a number of factors, including how ‘high risk’ a business is.

Professionals will make an assessment based on:

The type of food that is handled
The number and type of customers (for example whether the business serves a vulnerable group)
The types of processes used during preparation (before food is sold and/or served)
The previous score and details of the hygiene standards seen on the last inspection

A business that is deemed to be higher risk based on the assessment criteria will be assessed more frequently than a business that is considered lower risk.

What does a low rating mean?

Ideally, a business wants a food hygiene rating of 3 or above. A rating below this suggests that multiple issues were found during an inspection. It is up to an individual to decide whether or not they wish to eat food from a business that has a low food hygiene score, but by knowing the score you can make an informed decision.

Local authorities

All food businesses are required to register with their local authority. This includes anyone who sells, cooks, handles, stores, prepares or distributes food.

This covers all types of businesses, for example:

Those with a physical location, such as a shop or restaurant
Businesses that operate from home, such as a bespoke cake maker
People working from a mobile or temporary location, such as a pop up shop or burger van
Online businesses

If you operate across different locations, you must register with each of the local authorities in which you operate.

When a business registers with the local authority, the food safety team will be automatically notified and will begin the process of arranging an inspection.

The Food Standards Agency works closely with local authorities and provides them with guidance and frameworks to ensure that they are consistent when enforcing relevant laws around food safety. This includes Codes of Practice, Framework Agreements and Practice Guidance.

Local authorities send trained professionals (either a food safety officer or environmental health officer) to inspect premises to check how well they are following food safety law and whether food is safe to eat. During the inspection, they will check standards in three key areas:

General hygiene standards around food handling
The physical condition of a business
How a business manages food safety

Hygiene standards around food handling

Factors that will be considered include how food is:

Prepared
Cooked
Reheated
Cooled
Stored

Inspectors will perform a series of checks as well as speaking to the business owner and potentially to other employees involved with food preparation.

The physical condition of the business

Aspects of the business that will be checked include:

How clean the business is in general
Housekeeping measures (including tidiness, availability of cleaning materials, details of cleaning schedules)
Handwashing facilities (including whether there is a separate sink for handwashing and sufficient antibacterial, fragrance-free soap)
How and where rubbish is stored
Pest control measures
The layout of the business
Lighting and ventilation

How the business manages food safety

Inspectors will look at the procedures that a business has in place to manage food safety, such as:

Training and certification (including asking to see the food hygiene certificates of anyone employed there)
Competence of food handlers
Record keeping (including fridge temperatures)
Colour coding of chopping boards
Methods for labelling food with expiry dates
Resources (such as health and safety display posters)
Traceability of food

Food safety inspectors will use their findings to assess both how well a business is doing and how confident they are that standards will continue to be maintained at their current level.

Government food ratings

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) operates their national food hygiene ratings scheme in conjunction with local authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

These ratings provide basic information via a star rating (out of a potential five stars) to customers, giving them an idea of whether standards are excellent, good, average or poor. To get the top rating, businesses must perform well in all three areas of the inspection. Advice will also be given on how to improve standards.

All businesses who handle food must work in line with food law and legislation. The Food Standards Agency ratings scheme helps to ensure compliance and enforce standards across the board.

Scores on the doors

In 2011, the Scores on the Doors initiative began working with the FSA to standardise the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme and publish the results of hygiene inspections in one, publicly available location. Levels of compliance have improved by 50% due to the scores on the doors initiative and the transparency it allows.

Once an inspection has taken place and an assessment has been made, the local authority will share their findings with business owners.

Businesses in England can voluntarily share their hygiene rating using a green sticker displayed on the door or in the window of their premises. Businesses in Wales and Northern Ireland must display their hygiene rating by law and should put it in a prominent place which allows customers to easily see it. This is referred to as ‘scores on the doors’.

The back of the sticker and the online rating will also show the date of the inspection by the local authority’s food safety officer.

The Scores on the Doors website currently lists data on 601,074 food establishments in the UK.

Online ratings

In addition to the sticker scheme, information about food hygiene inspections can also be easily found online.

You can search for the ratings of a business using either the Food Standards Agency or the Scores on the Doors websites. You will need the name or part of the name of the business and the postcode or location of the business.

The rating will be displayed as an image of the rating (similar to the green stickers displayed on store fronts) as well as a more detailed breakdown of how the business scored in the three key areas. The date of the inspection and the local authority responsible for the inspection will also be listed.

Information detailing how a business scored in the three key areas is available for businesses inspected since April 2016 in England and Northern Ireland and for businesses inspected in Wales since November 2014.

Example:

Food hygiene rating for Jade Café

Restaurant/café/canteen

16a West Humber Street

Hull

HU1 1TH

Jade Café was awarded a rating of 2 (improvement necessary) by Hull City Council on 12^th September 2024

Food hygiene and safety – Improvement necessary

Structural compliance – Good

Confidence in management – Generally satisfactory

There can sometimes be a temporary difference between an online rating and the ‘score on the door’ that a business displays. This is usually due to either an appeal or a delay with updating the website. If you know how to check a food hygiene score and either cannot find a result or have noticed a discrepancy, you can contact the local authority responsible for inspecting the business.

For consumers who want to see the full report rather than the simplified, numerical rating, you can make a freedom of information request (FOI) to the local authority that carried out the inspection. They should consider your request and either send a full copy of the report or send an explanation as to why they cannot complete your request.

Maintaining and improving a hygiene score

Scores are based on the findings at the time of inspection, therefore businesses who want to maintain a good score need to commit to continued compliance around food safety to keep standards high.

If a business is given a low score, the local authority food safety officer will give advice on how to improve standards. They will also provide a time frame for how quickly they expect improvements to be made.

Local authority officers have a range of enforcement options available to them. If they inspect a food premises and find serious issues, they have a range of powers available, including:

Seizing food that is deemed unfit for human consumption
Putting in writing any issues with compliance that were found during an inspection and giving instruction on how to remedy them
Serving a formal legal notice that sets out what a business owner must do or not do
Recommending prosecution (for serious breaches)

If there is an imminent risk to public health, an officer can close a business down until changes are made to remove hazards and reduce risks.

Tips to get a good, all round food hygiene score include:

Have a regular cleaning schedule and a schedule for deep cleaning
Ensure all staff have received proper training
Enforce high standards of hand washing and personal hygiene amongst staff
Use clear systems to mark food with expiry dates
Practice good record keeping
Ensure there are procedures in place to avoid cross contact and cross contamination
Stay up to date with food law and legislation

By working with local authority officers and making the recommended improvements, most businesses will be able to improve their hygiene score on reinspection.

There are several ways to check what people are saying about a food business, which may include information about their general reputation or hygiene standards, for example:

Review sites such as Tripadvisor
Google reviews
Testimonials
Social media such as Facebook or Twitter
Word of mouth

It is important to remember that these reviews will be subjective and that if you want to know how to check a food hygiene score, then the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, run by the FSA in collaboration with local authorities, is the only way to get official and objective information that is based on assessments done by professionals.

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What are food hygiene ratings?