About the data
Food Ratings shows the food hygiene ratings published by local authorities through the Food Standards Agency (FSA), on a map you can search.
Where the ratings come from
Ratings come from the FSA food hygiene rating open data, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Food Ratings downloads each authority's official bulk file once a day and keeps a history of what changed. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the FSA, and it does not use the FSA logo or official rating images.
A rating reflects the result of the most recent published inspection. It is not a guarantee of conditions today. For the official record, follow the Official FSA listing link on any place.
Reading a rating
England, Wales and Northern Ireland use the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS), from 5 (very good) to 0 (urgent improvement necessary). Scotland uses the Food Hygiene Information Scheme (FHIS), which publishes Pass or Improvement Required; Food Ratings never converts those into numbers.
- Very good
- Good
- Generally satisfactory
- Improvement necessary
- Major improvement necessary
- Urgent improvement necessary
- Pass (FHIS)
- Improvement required (FHIS)
- Awaiting inspection or publication
- Exempt
- Status Food Ratings does not recognise (shown as published)
The badge colours are Food Ratings' own labels, not official FSA artwork. Each inspection also scores three areas (hygienic food handling, the condition of the premises, and confidence in management). Those scores use a different scale where lower is better, so Food Ratings labels them separately and always shows the published overall rating as the headline.
What is not shown
- Some premises, often businesses run from home, have no published address or map coordinates. They appear in lists as Map location unavailable; Food Ratings never guesses a location from a postcode.
- Food Ratings does not supply opening hours, menus, photos, reviews or allergy information, and it takes no orders or payments.
- Places whose local authority is not imported are not shown. See data coverage.
History and daily changes
Every day Food Ratings compares the new FSA snapshot with the previous one and records what changed: new ratings, new inspection dates, new listings and listings no longer published. See rating changes. This is Food Ratings' own observation log, not a complete inspection history.
Map and postcode data
Map data: © OpenStreetMap contributors (OpenStreetMap community tiles, for light development use only). Postcode search uses Postcodes.io (Great Britain only), based on Ordnance Survey and ONS open data.
When you open the map, your browser may ask whether to share your location so the map can start where you are. It is used only to position the map in your browser and is never stored; if you say no, the map starts at a default area and every search still works. The home page never asks for your location.
Images
The product pictures on the home page are real screenshots of Food Ratings. The brunch photograph is an illustrative image, not a listed business.