Any customer in the UK can find your rating now, within two minutes using the Food Standards Agency website.
- What an Environmental Health Officer (EHO) will be looking for?
- What do the rating mean?
- How often will I get a visit?
When an EHO makes a visit to a food business for the purpose of assessing the standards, they will look at 3 key areas.
- Food Safety practices & procedures
- Structure of premises
- Confidence in management
Food safety practices & procedures will look at operations, including;
- Hand washing practices & regularity
- Cross contamination procedures including separate equipment
- Uniform, hats, aprons
- Cleaning & sanitising processes
- Allergen processes
Structure of premises
- Washing facilities including hand washing & staff facilities
- Building maintenance & condition
- Physical pest control
- Suitable materials used
Confidence in management
- Record keeping including HACCP
- Staff monitoring & direction
- Effective schedules including cleaning
- Staff training
The Food Hygiene Standards Scheme rating will be based on how many areas are found to be below standard.
- 5 is very good
- 4 is good
- 3 is generally satisfactory
- 2 means improvement necessary
- 1 means major improvement necessary
- 0 requires urgent improvement
These ratings will also determine the frequency of scheduled visits from the EHO.
5 stars – expect a visit every 3 years
4 stars – roughly 2 years before a scheduled inspection
3 stars – around 18 months for a visit
2 stars – expect a visit every year
0 – 1 stars – you will inspected at least every 6 months
If you want to achieve 5 stars, which you can proudly display on your front door and need help to get there, give us a call. We can show you how. Please see our Auditing page.
