Know if a place is really clean, before you eat there.
The official Food Standards Agency rating for any UK restaurant, takeaway, cafe, pub or shop, and, more usefully, what it actually means.
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609,860 food businesses rated by 363 local councils free, and always will be
What the ratings mean
Top marks at the last inspection. In a typical council area, around three quarters of businesses manage this.
A good standard of hygiene, with nothing serious found.
The business met the legal standard, but the inspector recorded enough to stop it scoring higher.
Problems the business is required to fix. A low rating is not a closure order.
A rating is a snapshot, not a verdict
Every food business in the UK is inspected, unannounced, by its local council. The inspector scores three things: how food is handled, the condition of the premises, and how much confidence there is that management will keep standards up. The published rating reflects the weakest of the three, which is why a spotless dining room can still sit behind a 2.
How often a business is inspected depends on the risk it carries: roughly every six months at the top of the scale, out to two years or more for low-risk premises. So the date matters as much as the number. On every venue page here you get both, along with what the inspector found in each of the three areas, how the business compares to every other place its council rates, and the business's own reply if it has made one.
Scotland runs a different scheme entirely, a pass or an improvement requirement rather than a score out of five, and we never pretend otherwise by showing it a star chart it never earned.
Start with a guide
Browse by area
Every UK council publishes the ratings of the food businesses it inspects. See all 363 council areas →
Data from the Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland under the Open Government Licence. Ratings reflect standards found at the time of inspection and can change; the official record is held by the FSA and the local council.