How to get a 5 food hygiene rating

1. How the rating is worked out

At an inspection, the food safety officer looks at three things and gives each a score. In the FSA's words, they check:

• Hygienic food handling. How food is prepared, cooked, reheated, cooled and stored.
• Physical condition of the business. Cleanliness, layout, lighting, ventilation, pest control and other facilities.
• Management of food safety. The processes, training and systems you have in place to make sure good hygiene is maintained, so the officer can have confidence that standards will be kept up in the future.

The scores are penalty points: lower is better. They're added up, and the total (together with the single worst score) decides the rating. This is the mapping from the FSA's Food Hygiene Rating Scheme Brand Standard (Table 3):

That second column matters. A kitchen can be spotless and still drop to a 4 because one area scored 10. The FSA's own example is scores of 0, 5 and 10: a total of 15, but a rating of 4. To get a 5 you need a total of 15 or less and no area scoring more than 5.

Source: FSA, Food Hygiene Rating Scheme Brand Standard, section 4 and Table 3.

2. “Confidence in management”: the score you control

The third score asks a simple question: will standards still be good when the officer has gone? The Brand Standard says it is “not solely about documented procedures”. Officers weigh up your track record, the attitude of management, your food safety knowledge, and whether your HACCP-based procedures are satisfactory, which they can't be “if they are not being properly implemented”.

In plain English: a folder of procedures that nobody fills in counts against you. A short, honest diary that's kept every day (including the days something went wrong and what you did about it) is exactly what builds that confidence.

3. Safer Food, Better Business in practice

SFBB has two halves:

• Safe methods - short pages that say how you handle cross-contamination, cleaning, chilling, cooking and management. Fill them in once and review them.
• The diary - opening and closing checks every day, a note of anything that went wrong and what you did, extra checks, a daily sign-off (“Our safe methods were followed and effectively supervised today”), and a 4-weekly review.

The FSA says the diary “should take about one minute a day to complete”. In reality the paper version gets filled in at the end of the week, or not at all. That's the gap Five Star Diary closes.

Source: FSA, Safer Food, Better Business for caterers, diary introduction and management section.

4. Ten habits of five-star kitchens

1. Check fridges every day, starting with opening checks. Aim for 5°C or below; chilled food must be kept at 8°C or below.
2. Write down what you did when something's out of range - moved the food, threw it away, called an engineer.
3. Probe what you cook: 75°C in the centre for 30 seconds, or an equivalent like 70°C for 2 minutes. Hot holding at 63°C or above.
4. Check the probe - iced water should read −1°C to 1°C, boiling water 99°C to 101°C. Monthly is sensible.
5. Keep raw and ready-to-eat food apart - in the fridge, on boards, with knives and with cloths.
6. Follow a cleaning schedule that says what, how often and with what, and tick it off.
7. Keep allergen information accurate for everything on sale, and check it at opening.
8. Record training - who's been shown which safe methods, and when certificates need refreshing.
9. Know your suppliers - a suppliers' list, and deliveries checked (chilled at 8°C or below, frozen at −18°C or colder).
10. Do the 4-weekly review, even when nothing went wrong. SFBB is clear: it “requires completion even if no problems have been found”.

The temperature cheat sheet, with sources

5. On inspection day

• Have your safe methods and the last few months of records ready in one place.
• Let the person in charge walk round with the officer: knowledge counts towards confidence in management.
• Be open about problems and show what you did. A recorded problem with a sensible action is evidence your system works.
• Ask the officer to explain anything you don't understand, and write down what they recommend.

6. If you didn't get a 5

The FSA's guidance for businesses sets out three safeguards:

• Appeal in writing within 21 days of being told your rating (weekends and bank holidays count) if you think it is wrong or unfair. The council's lead food officer, or one from another council, decides it, never the officer who gave the rating.
• Right to reply - you can publish a response alongside your rating, explaining what you've put right.
• Request a re-rating once you've accepted the rating and made the improvements. Some councils in England charge for this, and in England a free re-visit usually isn't made in the first three months. Every council in Wales and Northern Ireland charges a fee, and the re-visit happens within three months of your written request.

In Wales and Northern Ireland the law says you must display your rating in a visible place at or near each customer entrance. In Wales, takeaway menus and leaflets must also carry a bilingual statement about the rating, and in Northern Ireland you must tell customers your rating if they ask. In England display is voluntary, but a 5 on the door is free advertising.

Scotland is different: it uses the Food Hygiene Information Scheme (FHIS), run by Food Standards Scotland, where a business gets a Pass or Improvement Required rather than a number from 0 to 5, and showing the result is voluntary. Scottish kitchens on Five Star Diary get Food Standards Scotland's CookSafe checks and records instead of SFBB's.

Source: FSA, Food Hygiene Rating Scheme: guidance for businesses.

This guide is general information based on FSA guidance, not legal advice. Five Star Diary isn't affiliated with the FSA or any council.