{"id":9471,"date":"2025-02-25T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.highspeedtraining.co.uk\/hub\/?p=9471"},"modified":"2025-05-28T12:31:24","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T11:31:24","slug":"food-hygiene-rating-scheme-faqs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.highspeedtraining.co.uk\/hub\/food-hygiene-rating-scheme-faqs\/","title":{"rendered":"The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme Explained: Answering your FAQs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Maintaining high standards of good food hygiene is essential for all those who work with food in any capacity. It is an integral part of keeping the public safe and can have a significant impact on the public\u2019s perception of your food business. First introduced by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in 2010, the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) provides the public with information about the food hygiene standards of the businesses they patronise. Since its introduction, the FHRS has driven up standards in food safety across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good food hygiene rating is a clear indicator to prospective customers that you are operating safely and legally. Not only that, it shows your dedication to staying compliant and protecting the public from undue harm. Having a clear understanding of the FHRS and how it works is vital to obtaining and maintaining a high score. In this article we will outline everything you need to know about the FHRS and explain how scores are determined. <\/p>\n\n\n

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What is the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme is a national scheme which runs across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The FHRS is operated in partnership with local authorities and provides information to the public about the hygiene standards of food businesses. Any business that supplies food directly to consumers is included in the scheme, such as, but not limited to; restaurants, takeaways, supermarkets, pubs, food trucks, care homes and hospitals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FHRS enables consumers to make better informed decisions about the places they choose to buy from, whether it be for their weekly food shop or a night out at their local restaurant. The scheme also encourages businesses to improve and maintain high scores to both reduce incidents of customer illness and to attract prospective consumers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Free Resource Pack<\/h3><\/div><\/div>

Our free Food Hygiene Rating Scheme Resource Pack<\/a> will provide you with the knowledge to attain and maintain a good hygiene rating. It includes detailed information on the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme scoring system as well as guidance on what a visiting EHO will be looking out for.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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What Do Food Hygiene Ratings Mean?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Under the FHRS businesses are given a rating from 5 to 0. How these ratings are calculated will be explored later in the article. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rating scale is as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food Hygiene Rating 5<\/strong> – Hygiene standards are very good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food Hygiene Rating 4<\/strong> – Hygiene standards are good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food Hygiene Rating 3<\/strong> – Hygiene standards are generally satisfactory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food Hygiene Rating 2<\/strong> – Some improvement is necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food Hygiene Rating 1<\/strong> – Major improvement is necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food Hygiene Rating 0<\/strong> – Urgent improvement is necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After an inspection and upon receiving a score, you will receive a sticker indicating your business\u2019 food hygiene rating. In Wales and Northern Ireland it is a legal requirement for these stickers to be prominently displayed where it can be easily seen by customers. It is not currently mandatory for businesses in England to display their stickers, however the prominent display of a good hygiene score can serve as a reassuring sign for customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How are Food Hygiene Ratings Calculated?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Food hygiene rating inspections are conducted by Environmental Health Officers (EHOs). An EHO will visit your premises and use the Food Law Code of Practice<\/a> to assess it in three categories. It is important to have a clear understanding of the different categories as a poor score in one can reduce your overall rating and potentially undermine the good systems you already have in place. For example, though you may maintain a high level of food hygiene, if a visiting EHO thinks that your training processes are inadequate, they may give you a lower score in that respective category which would reduce your overall rating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three assessment categories are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Food Safety and Hygiene Procedures<\/strong> – how hygienically the food is handled and how it is prepared, cooked, re-heated, cooled and stored.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
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    1. Structural Requirements <\/strong>– the physical condition of your business including cleanliness, layout, lighting, ventilation, pest control and other facilities. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
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      1. Confidence in Management<\/strong> – how you manage ways of keeping food safe, looking at processes, training and systems to ensure good hygiene is maintained. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        Each category is scored individually and then added together to calculate the intervention score. The scores available for Food Safety and Hygiene Procedures and Structural Requirements are 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25. For Confidence in Management, the available scores are 0, 5, 10, 20, 30. The cumulative score from all three categories is then mapped to the food hygiene rating score and this determines what your food hygiene rating will be. The lower the intervention score, the higher the overall rating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Though the scores are added together to determine an overall rating, the individual score of each category is of great importance. This is referred to as the additional scoring factor. Should a score for an individual category exceed the additional scoring factor, then the overall rating of the business would drop. For example, if your business received a total intervention score of 20 this would result in a food hygiene rating of 4, indicating that hygiene standards are good. However, if you scored 15 in Structural Requirements, then your rating would drop to 3, indicating that hygiene standards are generally satisfactory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        The final food hygiene rating that you receive is often seen as the most important part of  a food hygiene inspection, especially as this is the score that customers will see and that can be found online<\/a>. However, it\u2019s equally important to understand the scoring for each category as this is how your rating is actually calculated. In the table linked in the button below you will find a breakdown of the scoring criteria for each category as determined by the FSA\u2019s code of practice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n