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 find a rating for a local business you can visit the Food Standards Agency website ratings.

Premises are inspected to check compliance with legal requirements and 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 or shop for food, encouraging businesses to improve their hygiene standards.

In order to ensure that the scheme is fair to businesses, it's been designed to include a number of safeguards.

These are:

• An appeal (PDF, 115.9 KB) procedure
• A 'right to reply (PDF, 141.1 KB) '
• An opportunity to request a revisit (PDF, 148.7 KB) when improvements have been made in order to be re-assessed for a 'new' rating

Information is available for food businesses about these different safeguards and more information about the scheme can be found on the Foods Standards Agency website.