What do the Food Hygiene Rating Mean?
What are Food Hygiene Ratings?
Food hygiene ratings are ratings or scores that are given to any business that is directly associated with the selling, producing or handling of food. These scores are created by local authority inspections and are associated with that business on a scale of 0-5.
Each comprehensive score has 3 categories that it's broken down into. The first is Hygienic food handling, this determines how hygienic the business is whilst it prepares, cooks and stores food produce. Secondly is the condition of the facility, this determines how clean the venue is, along with other factors like hand washing facilities and pest control. The final category is the management of food safety. This is determined by checking the procedure the business has around food safety, the standards they obtain and whether or not their food is safe to serve and eat.
Food hygiene ratings are a useful guide to consumers, which will help you choose where to eat out or shop for food. The ratings give a clear and quick indication of businesses hygiene standards. But what do all the scores mean?
Ratings Breakdown
A Food Hygiene Rating of 0
A score of 0 means that urgent improvement is required. This means that the business scored more than 50 points. Each point is represented by a single or group of issues found meaning the higher the score, the more issues were seen. If a business scores 0, it means they have several significant breaches of food hygiene and are putting peoples health at immediate risk.
A Food Hygiene Rating of 1
A Rating of 1 means that there are major improvements required. If a score of 1 is seen, this means they have received a score between 45-50 points. This could mean that they are breaching multiple food hygiene standards and have a lack of food hygiene understanding and training amongst staff.
A Food Hygiene Rating of 2
A score of 2 means that there are improvements required. This rating means the business scored between 35-40. The reason may be that they gave causes to concern to the inspector in their handling practices and facilities and would require an immediate change.
A Food Hygiene Rating of 3
A hygiene score of 3 means the business was found to be generally satisfactory. Businesses receiving a rating of 3 scored between 25-30 points and their hygiene practices are overall acceptable whilst maintaining a standard. This score, however, means that there is still areas of improvement but the issues don't pose likely to be an immediate threat to health.
A Food Hygiene Rating of 4
A hygiene rating of 4 means that the inspectors assessed the business as "good". This rating means the business score a total of 20 points. This means the business hygiene practices are good and practices of safety systems are in place, with only a few small areas for improvement.
A Food Hygiene Rating of 5
A food hygiene rating of 5 means the business was seen as "very good". Ratings of 5 are given to businesses with a score between 0-15. This means the business showed excellent standards of safety on their premises. All businesses should aim to achieve this score.
How do I find food hygiene ratings?
There are many ways you can find out this information. The first method would be to head over to our search page and search for the business you are looking for, if you dont know the name you can always search by postcode. Another way would be a physical sticker at the business itself, these are usually found on windows or doors of the establishment. You could also do a little bit of searching around the web, you can even see the information on their JustEat page or similar.
Rest assure however, that our database holds the records of all food businesses in the UK, in fact there are over 500,0000+ and it continues to grow.
