How Do I Find My Food Hygiene Rating?
13 September 2026
Your food hygiene rating is published on the Food Standards Agency ratings website, usually within five weeks of your inspection. Search by business name, street, town or postcode. Scottish businesses appear on the Food Standards Scotland site instead.
Should I Eat Here runs on the same FSA data, covering more than 600,000 food premises across the UK, so you can check a food business's hygiene rating in one search rather than three.
What Is the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme?
The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) is the national scheme run by the Food Standards Agency with local authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It scores food hygiene standards from 0-5 at the last inspection, so consumers can see where to eat out or shop before they buy food.
The FSA launched it in 2010. A local authority food safety officer inspects your premises and checks three things against the Food Law Code of Practice: how hygienically food is handled, the physical condition of the building, and how well the operator manages food safety day to day.
The score measures compliance with food hygiene law, not the cooking. A 5 is not a 5 star quality mark, and the FHRS is not a star rating for taste or service.
How Do I Find My Food Hygiene Rating Online?
Search the FSA ratings website or Should I Eat Here using your business name, street, town or postcode. Your record shows the current score, the date of the last inspection, the local authority that carried it out, and any right to reply you have published.
Restaurants, pubs, cafés, takeaways, hotels, supermarkets, food shops, care homes and mobile caterers are all covered.
If nothing comes up, search by postcode instead. Councils file records under the registered trading name, which is not always the name above the door.
When Does a New Score Appear Online?
A new rating appears online three to five weeks after the food hygiene inspection. Local authorities hold scores of 0 to 4 during the 21 day appeal window. A 5 is normally uploaded within days, and any business can ask its council to publish early.
Two other statuses show up in the results. New businesses, and those that have changed hands, appear as awaiting inspection until an officer has visited. Exempt premises have been checked but sit outside the scheme because they are low risk to people's health in terms of food safety, such as a newsagent selling packaged sweets.
If your record is missing entirely, contact your council's food safety team. Every food business must register with its local authority 28 days before opening, and the rating follows the registration.
How Do I Find a Food Hygiene Rating in Scotland?
Scotland uses the Food Hygiene Information Scheme (FHIS), run by Food Standards Scotland with all 32 local authorities. FHIS covers more than 54,000 food outlets and awards Pass or Improvement Required rather than a 0 to 5 score. Search the Food Standards Scotland website by business name.
Pass means the business complies with the legal requirements for food hygiene and safety. Improvement Required means it does not, and the environmental health officer has told the operator what to fix. A re-visit can be requested once the work is done.
Scotland also runs the Eat Safe Award, which recognises food businesses whose hygiene standards go beyond the legal minimum. The Eat Safe Award sits alongside FHIS rather than replacing it, and holders are listed on the Food Standards Scotland site.
What Does Each Score From 0 to 5 Mean?
| Score | What it means |
|---|---|
| 5 | Hygiene standards are very good |
| 4 | Hygiene standards are good |
| 3 | Hygiene standards are generally satisfactory |
| 2 | Some improvement is necessary |
| 1 | Major improvement is necessary |
| 0 | Urgent improvement is necessary |
A 3 means the conditions found on the day were broadly satisfactory, though the officer flagged things to tighten up. Ratings of 0 and 1 bring enforcement action and a follow-up visit from the council.
Do Food Businesses Have to Display Their Rating?
Food businesses must display their rating at or near each customer entrance in Wales and Northern Ireland. That became a legal requirement in Wales in 2013 and in Northern Ireland in 2016. In England and Scotland it stays voluntary, though the FSA encourages it. Its 2021 display audit found 64% of businesses in England were showing a rating anyway, up from 55% in 2017.
The green and black FHRS sticker goes on the door or window where people can read it before they walk in. Scottish premises get an FHIS certificate for the same spot. Welsh businesses also have to give their rating verbally when a customer asks, and takeaways must print a bilingual line on menus and flyers pointing to the ratings website.
Online display is voluntary everywhere, including on your own site and on delivery platforms such as Deliveroo. The FSA supplies free digital icons for it.
What Can I Do If My Rating Is Wrong?
The scheme gives food businesses three safeguards. You can appeal in writing to your local authority within 21 days of being told your score. You can publish a right to reply. You can request a re-visit once you have made the improvements.
A right to reply is not an appeal. It appears next to your rating online and lets you explain unusual circumstances on the day, or set out what has changed since. A re-visit produces a fresh assessment and, where the improvements hold up, a new rating.
Whichever route you take, start with the officer named on your inspection report. Most disputes come down to evidence nobody saw on the day, and a call to the food safety team settles them faster than a form.