National Food Hygiene Rating Scheme

The ‘Food Hygiene Rating Scheme’ is a local authority/Food Standards Agency partnership initiative. The scheme provides consumers with information about hygiene standards in food premises at the time they are inspected by local authority food safety officers to check compliance with legal requirements – the food hygiene rating given reflects the inspection findings. The purpose is to allow consumers to make informed choices about the places where they eat out or shop for food thereby encouraging businesses to improve their hygiene standards.

In order to ensure that the scheme is fair to businesses, it has been designed to include a number of safeguards. These are: an appeal procedure; a ‘right to reply’; and an opportunity to request a re-visit when improvements have been made in order to be re-assessed for a ‘new’ rating.

The ratings can be viewed at the Food Standards Agency.  A short guide is available to help you navigate your way round the website.