How to Get a 5 Food Hygiene Rating: What Inspectors Score

A 5 needs a total score of 15 or less, with nothing above 5 in any of the three areas. How the scoring works, where good kitchens slip to a 4, and how groups keep every site at 5.

The officer gives three scores at the end of an inspection: one for how food is handled, one for the state of the building, and one for how well the business is managed. Points count against you, so lower is better. For a 5, the three scores have to add up to 15 or less, and none of them can be higher than 5.

The second half of that rule catches a lot of decent kitchens. A spotless 0 for food handling, a 5 for the building and a 10 for management adds up to 15, and it still gets you a 4.

This guide covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland, where the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) runs. Scotland has its own scheme, covered near the end.

The scoring table

Food handling and the building are each scored 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25. Confidence in management is scored 0, 5, 10, 20 or 30. The FHRS Brand Standard turns the three into a rating like this:

Total of the three scores	Highest any one score can be	Rating
0 to 15	5	5: very good
20	10	4: good
25 to 30	10	3: generally satisfactory
35 to 40	15	2: improvement necessary
45 to 50	20	1: major improvement necessary
over 50	no limit	0: urgent improvement necessary

If one score is over the limit for its band, the rating drops until it isn't. The Brand Standard's own example is 5, 5 and 20. That totals 30, which looks like a 3, but the 20 drags it down to a 1.

So there's no trading off. A perfect 0 on food handling doesn't buy you anything if management scores 10. The aim is a 5 or better on all three.

Confidence in management decides most close calls

This is the score people understand least. It's the officer's judgement of whether you'll keep things right after they leave, and it rests on four things: your track record, how you responded to advice or action last time, what your managers know about the hazards in your kitchen, and whether you have documented food safety procedures that fit the size and type of business.

The Brand Standard describes what earns a 5 here. The procedures are in place and suit the business ("e.g. SFBB", it says). Records are "generally maintained – but some minor deficiencies/gaps". Staff are supervised and trained, and new starters get induction training.

A 10, which caps you at a 4, describes nearly the same business with a few cracks showing. Records are kept, but with "some deficiencies/gaps identified". Staff are generally trained, but "not all staff fully aware".

That's a thin line, and it usually comes down to two things you can see in the first ten minutes: the diary and the people. Expect the officer to open your records at a recent week and to ask someone on the line how they'd handle a task, such as checking a chicken thigh is cooked through or taking an allergy order. A head chef who knows the answer isn't enough if the commis on the fryer doesn't.

Track record cuts both ways. An existing site with an old 2 on file has more to prove. A new business, or one under new management, "should not be penalised" for having no history, according to the Brand Standard.

Allergens sit here too. Under the FSA's practice guidance, how you stop allergen cross-contamination is weighed under confidence in management, while the rules on allergen information are dealt with separately from your rating. Those rules are in our guides to the 14 allergens and Natasha's Law.

What a 10 looks like in the other two

The Brand Standard gives examples of the level that costs you a 5, and they're worth reading because none of them sound dramatic.

For food handling, it's chilled high-risk food "generally below 8°C but some evidence of rising above such as when busy", or "some lapses" in monitoring. Eight degrees is the legal limit for chilled food in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Our guide to UK food temperature rules covers it and the other limits. A reach-in on the pass that drifts to 9°C on Saturday night is exactly this.

For the building, it's things like "some cracked and missing wall tiles near to a food preparation surface", areas where cleaning needs to improve, or "minor pest proofing required" even with no sign of pests. A gap under the back door with daylight showing through counts.

None of these would close you down. Any one of them can take your 5 away.

Safer Food Better Business: what the records have to show

Safer Food Better Business (SFBB) is the FSA's free food safety pack for small businesses in England and Wales. There are versions for caterers, retailers, Indian cuisine and Chinese cuisine, among others. Northern Ireland uses a pack called Safe Catering instead. You don't have to use SFBB. A HACCP-based system you've written yourself is fine if it fits what you do, but SFBB is what most officers are used to seeing in a small kitchen.

The diary is the part that matters on the day. The FSA reckons it takes "about one minute a day", which is true when the checks behind it have actually been done:

Every day, a manager signs to say the opening and closing checks were done and the safe methods were followed. Opening checks include fridges and freezers working properly, the probe thermometer working, hot water running, no signs of pests, and allergen information being accurate. Closing checks include throwing away food past its use-by date and recording your "prove it" checks.
Every week, there's space for extra checks.
Every four weeks, you review the diary to find problems that keep coming back.

You can keep it on paper or on a device. The FSA says you can download the diary pages and fill them in electronically. Keep completed pages until the officer's next visit. Our Safer Food Better Business guide goes through the diary in detail.

One thing the scoring makes plain: an officer is judging whether your records are real, not whether they're tidy. A month of identical fridge readings in the same pen, all signed off at once, is worse than a messy page with one honest 7°C and a note saying what you did about it.

Running more than one site

Every site gets its own rating. Each premises registers with its own council, at least 28 days before it starts trading (registration is free), and each is inspected and scored on its own. Delivery-only brands cooked in the same kitchen share that kitchen's registration, and their names are listed against its rating.

The group's system and each site's habits are scored together. In the Brand Standard's words, for multi-site businesses "the company-wide management system and procedures are key", but the officer still judges how the individual store is run. A well-written group manual won't protect a site where nobody follows it.

Primary Authority can take some of the guesswork out. Through Primary Authority, a business partners with one council, which gives "assured advice" that other councils must respect. For food hygiene, the primary authority can give a view on the company-wide system. The officer at each site then scores how well that site puts it into practice, rather than re-judging your whole approach in every borough. For a group across four or five London boroughs, that's the difference between one interpretation of your procedures and five.

Head office gets a copy of each notice. Watch the dates, though. The 21-day appeal window starts when the site is notified, not when the copy reaches you.

New sites can wait a long time for a rating. The current Food Law Code of Practice expects a first check within 28 days for most new caterers, and it now lets councils start with a desk-based assessment. In practice there's a backlog: 36,690 premises in England were waiting for a rating in April 2025. Run the new site to the standard of a 5 from the first day. The visit comes when it comes.

How common a 5 is

Across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 77% of rated businesses had a 5 in 2024/25, up from 72% in March 2020, according to the FSA. Central London is tougher. When we counted restaurants, cafés and canteens across Westminster, Camden, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Islington, Southwark and Lambeth in the FSA's open data at the end of October 2026, about 65% had a 5. In Camden and Islington it was closer to 56%. On a busy London high street, a green 5 on the door still sets you apart.

If you get a 4 or lower

You'll be told the rating at the inspection or in writing within 14 days. A 5 is published on ratings.food.gov.uk as soon as the council uploads it. A rating of 0 to 4 goes up 3 to 5 weeks after the inspection, which leaves time for an appeal.

You have three options, and they do different jobs. All three are set out in the FSA's guidance for businesses.

Appeal, if you think the rating was wrong on the day. Write to the council within 21 days of being notified. Weekends and bank holidays count. Someone other than the officer who rated you decides, within 21 days of getting your appeal. An appeal isn't the route for "we've fixed it since".

Right to reply, if the rating is fair but there's context. For example, the walk-in failed the morning of the inspection and has been replaced. Your reply is published alongside the rating, and you can send it at any time before the next inspection.

Re-rating visit, once you've fixed the problems. In England you can ask for one at any time, as long as you accept the rating and have dealt with what the officer found. How it works depends on whether your council charges:

Councils that don't charge can apply a three-month standstill, so the visit might come up to six months after you ask. You get one free request per planned inspection.
Councils that charge have no standstill. The visit happens within three months of your request and payment, and you can ask more than once.

Most London boroughs charge. Recent published fees include Westminster £350, Hackney £342, Kensington and Chelsea £325.50, Lambeth £300 and Tower Hamlets £282. In Wales you pay the council's "reasonable costs" and the visit is within three months. Northern Ireland sets a fixed fee of £150.

The re-rating visit is unannounced, and the rating can go up, down or stay where it is. Don't ask until the fixes are holding without anyone watching.

How often you'll be inspected

The council sets your next visit from your last inspection score. Under the Food Law Code of Practice for England issued in October 2025, the minimum frequencies are:

Risk category	Next inspection due within
A	6 months
B	12 months
C	18 months
D	24 months
E	36 months

The 2025 code also lets councils alternate full inspections with other checks for the lower-risk categories, and category E can be handled remotely. A good rating buys you longer gaps between visits. That's one more reason to fix a 4 rather than live with it.

Displaying the sticker

In Wales, displaying your rating at or near each customer entrance has been a legal requirement since November 2013. Takeaways there must also print a bilingual statement about their rating on menus and leaflets that show prices and a way to order. In Northern Ireland, display at each customer entrance is also compulsory, and staff must tell customers the rating if asked. Both countries use a £200 fixed penalty.

In England, display is still voluntary. The FSA's 2025–26 annual report puts it at 70% of businesses, against 95% in Wales and 92% in Northern Ireland. The FSA wants display to be compulsory in England, both on the door and online. That needs new primary legislation, and its current plan is to consult in 2027. For now, the sticker on your door is a choice, but your rating is public on the FSA website whatever you do.

A rating doesn't expire. You can only display your most recent one, though. Leaving an old 5 in the window after a re-inspection gave you a 3 may be an offence under consumer protection law.

Scotland runs a separate scheme, the Food Hygiene Information Scheme. Results there are Pass or Improvement Required rather than 0 to 5, and display is voluntary.

A walk-round before the officer does one

Do this at each site once a month, ideally with a manager from a different site, because fresh eyes catch what the local team has stopped seeing.

Open the diary at a random week. Is every day signed? Does the four-weekly review say something specific, or just "all fine"?
Probe three things in the walk-in and one on the pass. Compare the readings with what was written down this morning.
Ask your newest starter two questions. How do they check something is cooked, and what do they do when a customer says they're allergic to sesame?
Check every hand basin. Hot water, soap and paper towels, and nothing stacked in the sink.
Look for daylight. Under doors, around pipes and behind equipment. Then read the last pest control report and check its recommendations have actually been done.
Pick up anything that's been prepped. Is it labelled with what it is and when it must be used by?
Write down what you found and who's fixing it, with a date. The next officer will ask what happened about the last set of problems. Our corrective action log shows one way to keep that trail.

For the daily routines behind this, see the opening checklist, closing checklist and pest control checklist. If you're running several sites, our guide to multi-location restaurant operations covers keeping standards level across them.

This guide explains how the scheme works. It isn't legal advice. Your council's food team has the final word on your premises.