Food Hygiene Rating Scheme
If you serve or supply food direct to the public you may be covered by the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme.
When we inspect your business, we will give you a hygiene rating from 0 at the bottom to 5 at the top which is based on the hygiene standard at the time of the inspection.
You can display your rating on a sticker or certificate at your business or banner for your website.
For further information on food law inspections and to check a food hygiene rating please go to the Food Standards Agency website.
Published ratings
After an inspection we will upload the rating so that it is published on the Food Standards Agency website. We upload ratings fortnightly to the Food Standards Agency.
Ratings of 0 to 4 are published between 3 and 5 weeks after the date of the inspection so there is time for you to submit an appeal.
Ratings of 5 will be published as soon as they are uploaded.
You can ask we publish your rating the end of the appeal period. There is a fee for this service.
Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the application.
Request your rating be uploaded sooner
Appeals
If you do not agree with the hygiene rating you were given as you do not think it reflects the standards at the time of the inspection you can make an appeal.
Start by contacting the officer who gave you the rating. They will be able to explain why they gave the score they did.
If you’re still not happy with this you can appeal. You will need to appeal within 21 days of the inspection date.
Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the application.
Revisit
If you have made all the improvements in your inspection report you can ask us to revisit before your next inspection. We will assess your business again to consider giving you a new food hygiene rating.
There is a cost for this service.
You must make sure that all the improvements in your report have been carried out as your rating can go up or down depending on what we find during the revisit. We will revisit within 3 months of the request.
Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the application.
If you want a revisit sooner than within 3 months you can request one with an urgency fee.
Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the application.
Request a revisit with urgency fee
There is a fee for this service.
Right to Reply
You also have the Right to Reply to your rating. This is different from an appeal. It allows you to tell us of any actions that you have taken towards the required improvements in the inspection letter from your inspection letter.
You can submit a Right to Reply if you want customers to know of any:
- unusual circumstances that led to the rating
- improvements you have carried out since the rating
- planned improvement before the next rating
You’ll need to register on our online portal.
Once registered:
- Go to Requests.
- Select Submit a request complaint.
- In Request Subject choose Food Hygiene – Food Hygiene Rating Scheme – Right to Reply.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the application.