Food Hygiene Hub FAQs
An Environmental Health Officer (EHO) will rate your business in three key areas – Cleanliness, Structure and Management. The combined score in these areas will equate to one of the following outcomes…England, Wales and North Ireland – score 0 (lowest) – 5 (highest)
Scotland – ‘pass’ or ‘improvement required’
More info here
The EHO will provide feedback following an inspection with areas that you need to work on as a business.
England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the hygiene standards found at the time of inspection are then rated on a scale. At the bottom of the scale is zero (0) – this means urgent improvement is required. At the top of the scale is five (5) – this means the hygiene standards are very good.
In Scotland, your premises will either be rated as ‘Pass’ or ‘Improvement Required’ unless your business is exempt.
If the top rating is not given, the officer will explain to the person who owns or manages the business what improvements need to be made and what action they can take to improve their hygiene rating.
More info here
If the EHO has visited your site, provided you with a food hygiene rating, and you do not agree with the outcome, or there were certain circumstances that attributed to the poor score, there are key steps you can take.
More info here
Yes. If a customer wanted to see this information, they could make a ‘Freedom of Information’ request to the local authority that carried out the inspection
Businesses in England and Scotland do not currently have to display their rating, although it is inevitable that this will become a legal obligation in the future.
Businesses in Wales and Northern Ireland are already required to display their FSA rating in their shopfront.
More info here
Yes, as a new business owner it is a legal requirement for you to register the business again in your name.
How often inspections take place depends on the potential risk to people’s health.
The time between inspections varies from six months to two years. For some very low risk businesses, the interval between inspections may be greater than this.
There is a greater risk if a business is, for example, preparing and serving or selling different types of both cooked and raw foods. These businesses are inspected more often than, for example, a small retailer selling a range of pre-packed foods that require only to be kept refrigerated.
Businesses given ratings of ‘0’ or ‘1’ must make urgent or major improvements to hygiene standards. The local authority food safety officer will use a number of measures, as well as giving advice and guidance, to make sure these improvements are made.
The food safety officer will also tell the business how quickly these improvements must be made and this will depend on the type of issue that needs to be addressed.
The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme means that people can immediately see when a restaurant places importance on cleanliness and hygiene. Businesses with low ratings may be in danger of losing customers, which should encourage them to improve standards more quickly and to maintain them in the future.
If the officer finds that a business’s hygiene standards are very poor and there is an imminent risk to health – this means food is not safe to eat – the officer must take action to make sure that customers are protected. This could even mean closing part of an operation or even closing the business down.
Yes – the rating is based on the most recent inspection, even if it’s over a year old.
If the name or address details of your restaurant are wrong on the FSA website, you should contact the local authority that gave you the rating and ask for the necessary changes to be made.
It’s a legal requirement to register with the environmental health service at your local council – failure to do so can result in prosecution. It’s proven that a higher FSA = higher number of orders.