Healthy Eating - The Government's Food Hygiene Rating Scheme online

The Government’s Food Hygiene Rating Scheme has now been in force for a year and ratings for businesses who have been assessed so far can be viewed on council websites.

All food businesses – businesses which provide food to the public – are being assessed by local councils and graded in six different categories as follows:-

• 5 Very good
• 4 Good
• 3 Generally satisfactory
• 2 Improvements necessary
• 1 Major improvement necessary
• 0 Urgent improvement necessary

Ratings are based on three categories namely:-

• How food is handled (stored, prepared, cooked and so on)
• The cleanliness, layout, lighting, ventilation and so on of the actual premises
• The records kept by the business

Successful businesses obtaining a ranking of 5 will no doubt want to publicise their ranking and councils provide them with stickers that they can use for that purpose.

Businesses who obtain unsatisfactory ratings will be less keen to publicise the fact. They should bear in mind, though, that their rating will still be shown on the council’s website. As time passes, consumers will no doubt consult the website more and more.

If you feel the assessment is unfair then you do have a right of reply and we can assist with this.

If the fault lies with the system or procedures you have in place, then this might be harder to challenge though in practice it is, of course, important to do so. Again, we are very happy to advise and assist.

For further information about these changes and the way in which they are being introduced, please contact the Regulatory Law team at any of our offices or call 01803 202020.