South Bucks Launches The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme 

South Bucks District Council has rolled out the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) Food Hygiene Rating Scheme joining 160 local authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland which is now publishing more than 115,000 ratings at food.gov.uk/ratings.

The Food Hygiene Rating scheme helps you choose where to eat out or shop for food by giving you information about the hygiene standards in restaurants, pubs, cafés, takeaways, hotels and other places you eat, as well as in supermarkets and other food shops.

About the scheme

The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme is run by local authorities in partnership with the FSA.

In areas where the scheme is running, each food business is given a food hygiene rating on a scale from 0 to 5 when it is inspected by a local authority food safety officer. The top rating is ‘5’ – this means the hygiene standards are very good. The bottom is ‘0’ – this means urgent improvement is required.

When you eat out or shop for food, look out for a sticker like the one below, showing you the food hygiene rating for that business. You might find it displayed in the window, on the door, or as a certificate.
 


South Bucks District Councillor, Jennifer Woolveridge Portfolio Holder for Health and Housing said "We are delighted to be the first local authority in Bucks to launch the National Food Hygiene Rating Scheme. It will allow local people to see exactly how well restaurants, pubs, cafés, takeaways, hotels and other caterers, as well as supermarkets and other food shops are doing with food safety for the first time. Not only will it allow perspective customers to see the positive information but we also hope it will help to drive up food hygiene standards across the district because it will encourage those with low scores to take action and make the improvements suggested to raise their score." 

Does your favourite restaurant, takeaway or food shop have good hygiene standards?

You can find out here or at food.gov.uk/ratings.

The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme is relatively new. This means not all food businesses will have a hygiene rating yet, but more business are being rated all the time.

If you require any further information about the scheme, please email envhealth@southbucks.gov.uk or call 01895 837333.