Explainer
How food hygiene ratings work
Two different public schemes cover the United Kingdom. This page explains what each result means, what it does not mean, and how this site handles them.
England · Wales · Northern Ireland
Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS)
Local authority food safety officers inspect a business and score three things: how hygienically food is handled, the condition of the premises and facilities, and how the business manages food safety. The scores convert into a rating from 0 to 5.
| Rating | Description |
|---|---|
| 5 | Very good |
| 4 | Good |
| 3 | Generally satisfactory |
| 2 | Improvement necessary |
| 1 | Major improvement necessary |
| 0 | Urgent improvement necessary |
In Wales and Northern Ireland businesses must display their rating; in England display is voluntary. Some data rows include the three underlying scores. On those scores a lower number is better: they count points against the business, not points earned.
Scotland
Food Hygiene Information Scheme (FHIS)
Scotland publishes a result rather than a number. Food Standards Scotland runs the scheme with Scottish local authorities.
| Result | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pass and Eat Safe | A Pass, where the business also holds the Healthy Living or Eat Safe award recorded in the data |
| Pass | The business was judged to meet the legal requirements for food hygiene |
| Improvement Required | The business was judged not to meet the legal requirements at the time of the inspection |
Our method
Why the two schemes are never combined
A Pass in Scotland is not the same thing as a 4 or a 5 elsewhere, and there is no official conversion between the two. This site therefore calculates every share, distribution and comparison separately for each scheme. Where a page covers both, you will see two separate figures, not an average.
For FHRS we report the share rated 5 and the share rated 3 or above (3 is described by the scheme as “generally satisfactory”). For FHIS we report the share with a Pass result (including Pass and Eat Safe). The denominators are establishments with a published rating and an inspection date.
Read with care
What a rating does not tell you
A hygiene rating reflects what the local authority officer found on the day of the most recent inspection. It is not a guarantee of food safety and does not describe food quality, price or service.
- A rating can be several years old. Businesses with a good record are inspected less often, and every page shows the inspection date.
- Exempt businesses and those awaiting a first inspection have no rating. They are counted separately and never treated as a low or high score.
- A business may have appealed, asked for a re-visit, or published a right-to-reply. The FSA website is the official record: each establishment page links to it.