What does a 0 food hygiene rating mean?
A 0 means the inspector found serious problems and urgent improvement is necessary. It is the lowest rating the scheme gives, but it is not a closure order, and a business with a 0 can, and usually does, keep trading while it puts things right.
What the inspector actually found
A food hygiene rating is not a score for the food. It is a judgement about three things the inspector checked on the day: how food is handled, the physical condition and cleanliness of the premises, and how much confidence there is that management will keep standards up.
A 0 means at least one of those was seriously wrong. The overall rating is only ever as strong as the weakest of the three, so a spotless kitchen run by someone who cannot show they understand food safety can still score badly.
Can a business with a 0 rating still open?
Yes. This surprises people, and it is the single most important thing to understand about the scheme. A rating is information, not an enforcement action. If an inspector believes there is an imminent risk to health they have separate powers, they can serve a hygiene improvement notice, or apply to close the premises altogether. Those are different things from a rating.
So a business trading with a 0 has been told to make urgent improvements, and has not been judged dangerous enough to shut. Both facts are true at once.
What happens next
The business is expected to fix what was found. Once it has, it can ask the council for a re-inspection, and a new rating replaces the old one. Councils normally will not re-visit within three months of the original inspection, and in Wales and Northern Ireland a re-rating visit always carries a fee. In England some councils charge and some do not.
Until that re-visit happens, the 0 stands, which is why the date matters as much as the number. A 0 from last month tells you about the business today. A 0 from three years ago tells you about a business that either never asked to be re-rated, or has not been back to the top of the council's list.
Source: Food Standards Agency, “Food Hygiene Rating Scheme: guidance for businesses”
How rare is a 0?
Very. Across a typical English council of around 1,600 rated food businesses, you might find one or two rated 0, roughly one in eight hundred. Around three quarters hold the top rating of 5.
That rarity is the useful part. A 0 is not a common result that a business shrugs off; it is an outlier, and the business knows it.
What you can do about it
Nothing on this site changes a rating, and neither can the business. If you think a rating is wrong, the record is held by the Food Standards Agency and the local council, and corrections made there flow through to every site that republishes the data, including this one.
If you have a specific concern about a place, something you saw, or something that made you ill, the people to tell are the council's environmental health team. They are the ones who can inspect.
Common questions
Is a 0-rated restaurant safe to eat at?
A 0 means the inspector found serious problems requiring urgent improvement at the last inspection. It does not mean the premises have been judged an imminent danger, an inspector who believed that has separate powers to close a business, which are not the same as a rating. Whether you eat there is your judgement; the rating tells you what a trained inspector found, and when.
Can a restaurant be forced to close for a 0 rating?
Not by the rating itself. A rating is published information. Closure requires separate enforcement action, a hygiene emergency prohibition notice, which a council uses only where it judges there is an imminent risk to health.
How long does a 0 rating last?
Until the next inspection. A business that has fixed the problems can request a re-inspection, though councils normally will not re-visit within three months of the original inspection, and a fee usually applies.
Do businesses have to tell you they have a 0?
In Wales and Northern Ireland a business must display its rating sticker where customers can read it before they enter, whatever the rating. In England display is voluntary, so a 0-rated business in England may legally show you nothing at all.
Check a specific place
Every food business in the UK has a published rating. Look up a restaurant, takeaway, pub or shop by name, or browse every council area.
More guides
Ratings and the rules described here come from the Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland, published under the Open Government Licence. This is general information, not legal advice, the official record for any business is held by the FSA and its local council.