We Analysed 604,000 UK Food Businesses — Here's What We Found

Every restaurant, takeaway, pub, and cafe in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland is inspected and rated for food hygiene by their local council. The Food Standards Agency publishes these ratings as open data, but buried behind a basic search form that makes it nearly impossible to compare areas or spot trends.

We built HygieneScout to make this data browsable. In the process, we indexed 604,848 food establishments across the UK. Here's what the data tells us.

The big picture: 78% score top marks

The UK food industry is, on the whole, clean. 77.9% of rated establishments hold the maximum 5-star rating. A further 13.4% are rated 4 (Good). That means over 9 in 10 food businesses meet a high standard of hygiene.

But the tail end tells a different story. 14,455 establishments are rated 0, 1, or 2, meaning inspectors found significant problems. 907 of those hold the lowest possible score of 0: "Urgent improvement necessary."

The highest rated towns in the UK

Among towns with at least 100 food businesses, the highest average ratings belong to smaller coastal and rural towns, places where community reputation matters and establishments tend to be owner-operated.

Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset tops the list with a perfect 5.00 average across 134 establishments. Every single rated food business in Burnham-on-Sea holds the maximum score.

Close behind are Retford (4.98), Rawtenstall (4.97), and St Ives in Cornwall (4.97). The pattern is clear: smaller towns with strong local food scenes consistently outperform major cities.

See the full rankings →

The lowest rated towns in the UK

At the other end of the scale, London boroughs dominate the lower end of the table. It's worth noting that even the lowest averages are above 4 out of 5, the vast majority of businesses in these areas are rated well. Lower averages tend to reflect a higher concentration of food businesses in dense urban areas, where inspection volumes and turnover are greater. Newham has the lowest average rating of any area with 100+ establishments at just 3.92 out of 5, followed by Waltham Forest (3.95).

Outside London, the Greater Manchester towns of Atherton (3.98), Nelson (4.01), and Leigh (4.01) have lower average ratings.

The councils with the lowest average ratings tell a similar story: Newham (3.97), Waltham Forest (4.00), Ealing (4.17), Bolton (4.17), and Blaenau Gwent (4.19), the only Welsh authority in the bottom 10.

Which types of business score lowest?

Of the 907 establishments with a 0-star rating, meaning "urgent improvement necessary" at the time of their most recent inspection, the breakdown by business type is notable:

• Retailers (other) — 298 zero-rated (corner shops, off-licences, market stalls)
• Restaurants and cafes — 278 zero-rated
• Takeaways — 182 zero-rated
• Pubs and bars — 46 zero-rated
• Other catering — 28 zero-rated

Small retail outlets, corner shops, convenience stores, and market traders, are disproportionately represented. These are often businesses without dedicated food safety training or formal HACCP procedures.

36,000 restaurants haven't been inspected in 5+ years

A notable finding: 36,350 establishments are still displaying a rating based on an inspection that happened more than five years ago. That's 7.5% of all rated businesses.

A lot can change in five years. Staff turn over, ownership changes, and standards evolve. These businesses may well have improved since their last inspection, but their displayed rating doesn't reflect that. Equally, a business rated 5 five years ago may not maintain that standard today.

The FSA's system is reactive, not proactive. Councils inspect based on risk level and available resources. High-risk establishments (those rated 0-2) are reinspected more frequently, but a business rated 5 might not see an inspector for years.

The data gap: no public rating history

One of the biggest gaps in the FSA's public data is history. The official website only shows the current rating. There's no way to see whether a restaurant was rated 1 last year and improved to 5, or whether it's been declining over time.

At HygieneScout, we capture a snapshot of every rating change during our daily sync. Over time, this builds a timeline of rating history that doesn't exist anywhere else, not even on the FSA's own website.

Methodology

All data was sourced from the Food Standards Agency FHRS API on 2 April 2026 under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Analysis covers 604,848 establishments across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Scotland uses a different scheme (FHIS: Pass/Improvement Required) and is excluded from numeric rating comparisons. Town and council averages only include establishments with numeric FHRS ratings (0-5).

Explore the full dataset at hygienescout.co.uk.