We Analysed 604,000 UK Food Businesses — Here's What We Found
The highest and lowest rated towns, which business types have the lowest ratings, and the 36,000 establishments that haven't been inspected in 5+ years.
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."
Rating distribution across 482,413 FHRS-rated establishments
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.
The urban/rural divide
There is a clear pattern in the data: smaller towns consistently outperform larger cities. This is not a reflection of any particular area's food businesses being better or worse. Urban areas have higher concentrations of food businesses, greater staff turnover, and higher inspection volumes, all of which affect average scores. It is worth noting that even the areas with lower averages in this dataset still sit above 4 out of 5, meaning the overwhelming majority of businesses in every part of the UK are meeting high standards.
The rankings page shows the full picture, with towns sorted by average rating and the ability to filter by country and region. The most improved areas over the past 90 days are particularly worth looking at, as they show where standards are moving upward.
The 36,000 establishments rated 5 years ago or more
A broader finding from the data: 36,350 establishments are displaying a rating based on an inspection that took place more than five years ago. That is 7.5% of all rated businesses.
A lot can change in five years. Under the FSA's risk-based inspection model, businesses that consistently score well are inspected less frequently, so an old rating often reflects good performance rather than neglect. But it does mean the displayed rating is further from current conditions than a recent one would be.
HygieneScout flags ratings older than three years on individual establishment pages. The inspection date is always shown alongside the rating so you can judge how recent the assessment is.
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.