Food hygiene rating: how the 0 to 5 scores work in the UK

Food hygiene ratings at a glance

• A council officer inspects three things: food handling, the premises, and how you manage food safety. Each gets a score, and the scores decide your rating.
• One bad score can pull the rating down, even when the total is low.
• You must display your rating in Wales and Northern Ireland, where not doing so can mean a £200 fixed penalty or a fine. Display is voluntary in England and Scotland.
• You have 21 days to appeal an FHRS rating (14 days in Scotland). You can also add a right to reply or ask for a re-rating once you've fixed things.

What is a food hygiene rating?

A food hygiene rating is the score a council food safety officer gives a food business after an inspection, showing how well it met food hygiene law on the day. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland it runs from 0 to 5 under the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS). Scotland uses the Food Hygiene Information Scheme (FHIS), which gives a Pass or Improvement Required.

The FSA runs the FHRS "in partnership with local authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland". Its guidance for businesses (updated 30 June 2026) sets out the scale:

The rating covers hygiene and nothing else. The food hygiene ratings website puts it plainly: "The food hygiene rating is not a guide to food quality." A 5 tells a customer the kitchen was clean and well run on the day. It says nothing about how the food tastes, whether it's good value, or what the service is like.

The rating is a snapshot of what the officer found on the day. The FSA's guidance says it is still "your responsibility to follow food hygiene law at all times". A 5 means you complied when you were inspected, and the duty carries on between visits.

In Scotland, Food Standards Scotland says a Pass "indicates that the business broadly met the legal requirements", and a business that fails to meet them gets an Improvement Required certificate. Two other statuses show up on the register: Exempt Premises (inspected and passed, but low risk and outside the scheme) and Awaiting Inspection (new businesses and new owners). FHIS covers "more than 54,000 food outlets across all 32 local authorities in Scotland".

Where did food hygiene ratings come from?

The FSA's Chief Scientific Adviser report on the FHRS records how the scheme spread:

• 2009 and 2010: the FSA consulted councils, consumer groups and the food industry on how a national scheme would work.
• November 2010: the FHRS "was formally launched", on a voluntary basis in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Neither councils nor businesses were legally required to take part.
• December 2011: 50% of councils were running it. By June 2012, 90%.
• 28 November 2013: the Food Hygiene Rating (Wales) Act 2013 came into force, making display a legal duty in Wales.
• 28 November 2014: Wales extended the scheme to "trade to trade" businesses, which the Act defines as an establishment that "supplies food to another business". The Commencement No.2 Order 2014 brought that part of section 2(5) into force.
• 2016: Wales required takeaways to print a bilingual statement on menus and leaflets, under the Food Hygiene Rating (Promotion of Food Hygiene Rating) (Wales) Regulations 2016.
• 7 October 2016: the Food Hygiene Rating Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 came into operation. The same month, the last English council joined, "giving full coverage across England, Wales and Northern Ireland".

Some training pages still say the scheme started in "December 2008" and covers "99% of England". Both figures are out of date: full coverage came in October 2016.

The scheme was meant to give consumers clear information and to drive up hygiene standards. The FSA's September 2026 board paper on local authority performance says the share of businesses rated 5 "increased consistently at a national level from 72% in March 2020 to 78%". It puts the current figures at 77.8% in England, 75.2% in Wales and 83.3% in Northern Ireland, and says the share rated 3 or better has held at 97% for five years.

What does the officer check?

The officer checks three things, set out in the FSA guidance:

1. How hygienically food is handled: how it is "prepared, cooked, re-heated, cooled and stored".
2. The physical condition of the business: "cleanliness, layout, lighting, ventilation, pest control and other facilities".
3. How you manage food safety: "processes, training, and systems to ensure good hygiene is maintained", which gives the officer "the level of confidence in standards being maintained in the future".

The third element is called confidence in management. This is where your food safety management system is judged: a HACCP plan, or a pack such as Safer Food, Better Business. The FHRS Brand Standard (the document is marked "Revision 8 - issued June 2023"; GOV.UK lists it as published 13 April 2024) describes the best score as "food safety management/procedures in place and appropriate for size and nature of the business (e.g. SFBB)", with staff "suitably supervised, instructed and/or trained in food hygiene". Your track record counts too: the worst score goes with a "poor track record of compliance".

Where do allergens fit?

Allergen information on menus and labels is checked at a food standards inspection, which is separate from the hygiene inspection behind your rating. Cross-contamination, including allergen cross-contamination, is part of the hygiene rating. The Brand Standard (paragraph 3.10) says:

"The general assessment of hygiene procedures during an inspection should include consideration of the control of cross-contamination, including any allergen-related contamination identified in preparing food specifically for consumers with a food allergy or intolerance. These controls should be part of a business's food safety management system and should be taken into account when completing the assessment."

So if you take orders for allergy-free dishes, how you keep them apart is part of what the officer judges. In practice that means separate boards and utensils, cleaning between jobs and checking ingredients. If those controls are written into your HACCP plan or SFBB pack and your team follows them, they count towards confidence in management. If they're missing, they can pull that score down.

There must be a visit. The Brand Standard says "ratings cannot be given or changed on the basis of documentary evidence only or on self-assessment by the FBO". Sending in photos or receipts can support a re-rating request, but it can't change the rating on its own.

You're told your rating in writing, either at the inspection or within 14 days (weekends and public holidays included).

How is a food hygiene rating worked out?

Each of the three elements is scored under the food hygiene intervention rating in the Food Law Code of Practice. There's a separate code for each nation: England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Lower is better. Hygiene and structure are each scored 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25. Confidence in management is scored 0, 5, 10, 20 or 30.

The Brand Standard then maps the scores to a rating in two steps. First, add the three scores. Then check the highest single score, which the Brand Standard calls the "additional scoring factor". If one score is too high for the band, the rating "will drop down the scale to the rating where it no longer exceeds the additional scoring factor".

Work out your rating (Brand Standard, Table 3):

Worked examples. The first three are the Brand Standard's own (Table 4). The last two follow the same rule.

Look at the last two rows. A kitchen with one bad area can end up below a kitchen that's average everywhere. One weak element can cost you two or three ratings. At least one popular training guide gets this wrong and says a total of 20 with a 15 in structure gives a 3. Under Table 3 it gives a 2.

Who gets a food hygiene rating, and how often?

The FHRS covers you if you supply food direct to consumers, for example as a restaurant, café, takeaway or shop. In Wales, businesses that supply other businesses, such as manufacturers and wholesalers, have been included since 28 November 2014.

Two groups are inspected but not rated, according to the FSA guidance:

• Businesses that are low risk "and which consumers would not generally recognise as being a food business", such as newsagents, chemists or visitor centres selling pre-wrapped goods that don't need refrigeration.
• Childminders and businesses offering caring services at home.

How often you're inspected depends on risk: the type of food, the number and type of customers (such as vulnerable groups), the processes you carry out, and what the officer found last time. The FSA says the time between inspections "varies from six months for the highest risk businesses to two years for lower risk businesses". Some very low-risk businesses go longer. Every inspection gives you a new rating.

Do you have to display your food hygiene rating?

That depends on the nation.

Sources: FSA guidance; the Wales Act s7 and s8; the NI Act s7 and s8; the FSS local authority guidance on FHIS (September 2025).

In Wales and Northern Ireland, the sticker must be easy for customers to read before they come in. In Wales, the Act also makes your staff part of the duty: the operator and any "relevant employee" must tell a customer the rating when asked. Some guides say this applies everywhere in the UK. It only applies in Wales and Northern Ireland.

Does England plan to make display mandatory?

It's the FSA's aim, but nothing has been set in law. A September 2024 FHRS Steering Group paper says "Working towards mandatory display of food hygiene ratings at premises and online in England is an objective in the FSA's Three Year Corporate Plan 2023-26", and that "a mandatory scheme will require new primary legislation". On the statutory scheme for England, it says: "This work continues to be paused". The same paper reports that 82% of businesses in England think mandatory display would be a good thing.

Until that changes, display in England is a choice, and the figures show how businesses make it. In the FSA's 2025 audit of display, 81% of outlets in England rated 5 had their sticker up. For outlets rated 4 it was 51%, and for those rated 3 it was 29%. Only 1 of the 20 outlets rated 0 to 2 that were checked displayed theirs. In Wales, where it's the law, display was 95%.

So in England, a missing sticker doesn't prove a low rating, but customers who know the scheme may assume it.

Online display

Display online isn't required anywhere in the UK. The one exception is takeaway publicity in Wales: menus and leaflets you hand out must carry the bilingual statement pointing to the ratings website. Even where it's optional, the FSA encourages you to show your rating on your website and social media. If you do, show your current rating. In Wales and Northern Ireland, displaying a rating that isn't your current one is an offence, so update anything online when a new rating comes through.

How do you appeal a food hygiene rating?

Talk to the officer first. The FSA advises contacting them "to understand why the rating was given" before you appeal.

Sources: FSA guidance; Wales Act s5; FSS appeal form.

The Wales Act allows two grounds of appeal: the rating doesn't reflect hygiene standards at the time of inspection, or "the rating criteria were not applied correctly". While an FHRS appeal is open, the ratings website shows "awaiting publication". A judicial review doesn't stop publication.

What is the right to reply?

The right to reply lets you publish a short response next to your rating online, explaining what you've improved since or any unusual circumstances on the day. You send it in writing to the officer who inspected you. In the FHRS there's no deadline. The council may edit out "offensive, defamatory, clearly inaccurate or irrelevant remarks", and the comment stays until your next rating. FHIS has a right to reply as well (FSS business safeguards).

How do you get re-rated?

If you got less than a 5 and have fixed what the officer raised, you can ask for a re-rating inspection before the next planned one. You must have accepted the rating, so any appeal comes first. The officer looks at everything, "not just the specific areas you have been working to improve", so your rating "could well go up, down or remain the same".

Some councils in England charge for a re-rating (the Brand Standard cites the Localism Act 2011). In Wales and Northern Ireland, the FSA says "all local authorities charge a fee for the re-rating inspection under their statutory schemes". In Northern Ireland the fee is set by law: £150 under the Food Hygiene Rating (Fee and Fixed Penalty Amount) Order (Northern Ireland) 2016. In Wales no amount is set nationally. The Act lets each council recover its reasonable costs, paid in advance, so ask your council for its current fee. Put the request in writing with evidence, such as receipts or photos, of the work done. In England, a council doing free re-ratings won't usually visit in the first three months, though it may come sooner if all you had to do was structural repairs or new equipment.

What are the penalties for food hygiene rating offences?

Display offences only exist in Wales and Northern Ireland. In both, the offences include failing to display a valid sticker, displaying an invalid or wrong one, and (Wales) refusing to tell a customer the rating or giving false information. The Wales offences are in s9. On summary conviction, the fine is up to level 3 on the standard scale (Wales Act s20; NI Act s10).

These are summary offences, and neither Act sets its own time limit, so the general rule applies:

• Wales: a prosecution must start within 6 months of the offence, under section 127 of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980.
• Northern Ireland: article 19 of the Magistrates' Courts (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 says that, where no other limit applies, a court can't hear a complaint "unless the complaint was made within six months from the time when the offence was committed or ceased to continue".

Officers can issue a fixed penalty notice, which lets you avoid prosecution by paying:

• Wales: £200 within 28 days, cut to £150 if paid within 14 days (Wales Act Schedule).
• Northern Ireland: £200, set by article 3 of the 2016 Order. The NI Act Schedule says it is "reduced by 25% if payment is made within the first 14 days", which makes it £150.

Not paying leads to court. These council cases show what happens:

The Torfaen case came down to potted plants. In three of the others, the business was showing a better rating than it had. In the Conwy case, the director and the manager were fined personally as well as the company.

Can directors and managers be prosecuted personally?

Yes, in both nations.

• Wales: section 19 of the Act says that where a company commits an offence "with the consent or connivance of, or ... attributable to any neglect on the part of" a director, manager or secretary, that person "(as well as the body corporate) is guilty" too.
• Northern Ireland: NI Act s10(8) applies section 20(2) of the Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954. A director, general manager, secretary or similar officer who "consented to, or connived at, or did not exercise all such reasonable diligence" to prevent the offence is "liable to be prosecuted as if he had personally committed that offence". The NI Act also covers partnerships (s10(9)).

That's what happened in Conwy. The sticker wasn't up, and the court fined the company, the director and the manager separately. If you run a site in Wales or Northern Ireland, checking the sticker is part of your job as well as the owner's.

What happens after a 0 or 1?

The rating itself is a score. The breaches behind it can lead to enforcement against you. The Brand Standard (Q17) says councils should follow their enforcement policy and the Food Law Code of Practice, "which highlights that a food business that fails to comply with significant statutory requirements must be subject to appropriate enforcement action and re-visit inspection(s)". It adds: "It is anticipated that poorest scoring establishments will receive formal enforcement action in line with the local authority's enforcement policy."

The Brand Standard is also clear that the rating doesn't replace enforcement: "The FHRS should not be used as a means of alternative enforcement."

The hygiene breaches behind a low rating are offences in every nation, under each nation's hygiene regulations and the Food Safety Act 1990, or the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 in Northern Ireland. The FSA says that where hygiene standards are very poor, officers "must act to protect consumers", which can mean closing part or all of the business.

How do you get a food hygiene rating of 5?

The FSA says "all businesses should be able to achieve the top rating of 5", and you need to do well in all three elements. Going by the scoring:

• Keep every score at 5 or below. A single 10 caps you at 4, whatever the total.
• Have a written system that matches what you do, whether that's a HACCP plan, SFBB, CookSafe or Safe Catering, and fill in the records. Confidence in management uses the bigger steps (0, 5, 10, 20, 30), so a missing system costs the most.
• Train and supervise staff, and keep a record of the training.
• Keep the structure up: cleaning, repairs, handwashing facilities, ventilation and pest control checks.
• Fix what was raised last time. Your track record feeds into the management score.
• Read the officer's report. If you didn't get a 5, the officer "will explain what you can do to improve".

Records of daily checks are part of that evidence. A kitchen opening checklist signed off each morning is the kind of record an officer asks to see. If you keep those checks in an app such as Pilla, each one is timestamped with the name of the person who did it.

Where can you find ratings data?

Every FHRS and FHIS rating is public. You can search on the ratings website, or use the data directly:

• Open data downloads: the FSA publishes the full set of ratings as files, grouped by council. It says "The data is updated daily". On 13 October 2026 the all-councils file listed 614,166 businesses.
• The FHRS API: the FSA describes it as giving "free programmatic access to the Food Standards Agency Rating Data for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland".

The data includes the date each rating was given. The Brand Standard lists the rating date as a mandatory field when councils upload results, and an establishment ID that "is not published at food.gov.uk/ratings but is included in the open data and API". So the date of your last inspection is public.

This is useful to you in two ways. You can check what customers see when they search for you. If you run several sites, you can also pull every site's rating and date in one go, rather than searching each one.

Food hygiene rating myths

Food hygiene rating FAQs

How do I find a business's food hygiene rating?

Search the FSA's food hygiene ratings website by business name and street, town or postcode. For a home-based business, only the first part of the postcode is published. Every Scottish FHIS result is on the FSS website.

Does a new owner keep the old rating?

No. In Scotland, FSS says "a change of business operator at a given address will require a fresh assessment", and new businesses show Awaiting Inspection until they're inspected. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, new businesses also show as "awaiting inspection" until their first rating.

Can my rating be published early?

In England and Wales, yes: ask your council in writing to publish before the appeal period ends, and it "will usually publish the rating early". For Northern Ireland, the FSA says: "This option is not available in Northern Ireland."