The Food Standards Agency publishes hygiene ratings for restaurants, cafes and many other establishments. The scale goes from 0 to 5. As the FSA website explains:

At the inspection, the officer will check:

• how hygienically the food is handled – how it is prepared, cooked, re-heated, cooled and stored
• the condition of the structure of the buildings – the cleanliness, layout, lighting, ventilation and other facilities
• how the business manages what it does to make sure food is safe and so that the officer can be confident standards will be maintained in the future

Each of these three elements is essential for making sure that food hygiene standards meet requirements and the food served or sold to you is safe to eat.

The hygiene standards found at the time of inspection are then rated on a scale. At the bottom of the scale is ‘0’ – this means urgent improvement is required. At the top of the scale is ‘5’ – this means the hygiene standards are very good.

Although everyone can get a sticker to show how they rate, it is unfortunately not compulsory to display it. Where an establishment has a rating of 4 or 5 they’ll often put up the sticker, but you very rarely see businesses with lower rankings wanting to tell you about it.

 

Update: As of 24th January 2015 Gatley Tikka Masala has a food hygiene rating of 4. We would like to congratulate them for improving their rating – just what we want the food hygiene checks to achieve. If any other businesses listed here now have a new, higher rating please let us know and we’ll spread the word.

At the moment, no establishments in our area have a 0 rating, and a lot (too many to list here) get a 5. Twelve have a rating of 1, and I hope all are working hard to improve and get re-tested as soon as possible. They are:

 

You can check ratings for yourself here.

 

 

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