About & FAQ
Should I Eat Here makes it quick to check the official food hygiene rating for restaurants, takeaways, cafes, shops and other food businesses across the UK. Here's what the ratings mean and where the data comes from.
What is the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS)?
FHRS is used in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Local authority inspectors visit food businesses and score them from 0 to 5 based on food handling, hygiene facilities and management of food safety.
- 5
- Hygiene standards are very good
- 4
- Hygiene standards are good
- 3
- Hygiene standards are generally satisfactory
- 2
- Some improvement is necessary
- 1
- Major improvement is necessary
- 0
- Urgent improvement is required
What is the Food Hygiene Information Scheme (FHIS)?
FHIS is the equivalent scheme used in Scotland. Rather than a 0-5 score, businesses are simply marked as passing the required standards or needing improvement.
- Pass
- The business meets the required food hygiene standards
- Improvement Required
- The business needs to make improvements to meet the required standards
- Exempt
- The business type is exempt from the scheme (e.g. very low risk)
- Awaiting Inspection
- The business hasn't been inspected yet, or a report hasn't been published
Frequently asked questions
How often is the data updated?
A sync job pulls the latest ratings from the Food Standards Agency once a day. The exact date the data was last refreshed is shown on the homepage.
Who carries out the inspections?
Local authority environmental health officers carry out the inspections, not the FSA or this site. We only display the ratings they publish.
Is this an official FSA site?
No. Should I Eat Here is an independent, unofficial tool and isn't affiliated with or endorsed by the Food Standards Agency. For the official source, visit ratings.food.gov.uk.
A rating looks wrong or out of date — what do I do?
Ratings come directly from the FSA's published data, so any correction needs to happen at the source. Check the official listing on ratings.food.gov.uk — once it's corrected there, it will appear here at the next daily sync.
Data licensing
Food hygiene rating data is provided by the Food Standards Agency, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.