Food hygiene rating: how caterers and event venues get to a 5

What a food hygiene rating is, and why bookers check it

The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme is run by local authorities in partnership with the Food Standards Agency. Every business that supplies food direct to consumers can be rated, which includes event caterers, banquet halls, hotel function suites, wedding venues with kitchens and home based caterers. The rating reflects what the officer found on the day of the inspection. It is not a judgement on the taste of your food or the quality of your service.

Ratings are public. Anyone can look you up at ratings.food.gov.uk, and many corporate clients make a 4 or 5 a condition of their supplier list. A venue that hosts weddings with a 2 on the door has a harder conversation with every couple who searches its name. For caterers who travel to client sites, the rating sits with the kitchen where you prepare the food, so the base kitchen is the one to get right.

How often you are inspected depends on risk. GOV.UK guidance puts the interval at six months for the highest risk businesses and up to two years for lower risk ones, with some very low risk places waiting longer. A busy caterer cooking chilled and reheated dishes for hundreds of guests sits nearer the frequent end than a venue that only serves sealed snacks.

Step by step

1. 1

   Register before you trade

   Register the business with your local council at least 28 days before you start trading. This applies to home kitchens, mobile units and temporary premises as well as shop fronts. Registration is what puts you on the inspection list.

2. 2

   Write down your food safety system

   Inspectors want a documented system based on HACCP principles that fits your menu. Many small caterers use the FSA's Safer Food, Better Business pack. Keep the daily diary and checks up to date, not just filled in the night before a visit.

3. 3

   Fix the building before the officer finds it

   Walk the kitchen with the officer's eyes: hand wash basins with hot water, soap and towels, sealed surfaces, working fridges with thermometers, no gaps where pests get in, clean extraction and enough lighting to clean by.

4. 4

   Train every food handler for their job

   The law asks for training that matches each person's work. Level 2 for anyone preparing open, high risk food and Level 3 for supervisors is the benchmark most officers expect to see.

5. 5

   Act on the inspection letter

   Read every item on the report, put dates against each fix and keep evidence. If you think the score is wrong, appeal within 21 days. If you have fixed the problems, ask for a re-visit.

How the score is worked out

The officer scores three elements, and a low number is good. Hygienic food handling and the structure of the premises are each scored 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25. Confidence in management, which looks at your food safety system, records and training, is scored 0, 5, 10, 20 or 30. The three are added together and the total, plus the worst single score, decides the rating.

This is why one weak area can sink a kitchen that is otherwise spotless. A total of 15 earns a 5 only if no single element scored above 5. Paperwork matters as much as cleaning: a missing temperature log or an out of date allergen record pushes the management score up and drags the whole rating down.

What the officer looks at in a catering or venue kitchen

Expect the officer to arrive unannounced and to spend most of the visit watching and asking questions rather than reading files. They will ask the person in charge to talk them through a typical event: how food arrives, where it is stored, how it is cooked, cooled, held and transported, and who checks temperatures.

Event catering has its own pressure points. Large batches cool slowly, food sits in hot holding for hours, and dishes travel in vans to venues with unfamiliar kitchens. Officers know this, so they look closely at cooling methods, transport temperatures and how you keep allergen information attached to each dish when the menu changes for every client.

• Handling: separation of raw and ready to eat food, cooking and reheating temperatures, cooling times, date labels and stock rotation.
• Premises: hand washing facilities, clean and repairable surfaces, working refrigeration, pest proofing, ventilation, lighting and waste storage.
• Management: a written food safety system, completed records, allergen controls, cleaning schedules, supplier records and staff training that matches each role.
• Event specifics: how food is kept hot or cold in transit, how leftovers are handled, and how the team at the venue knows which dish contains which allergen.

Where you must show your rating: England, Wales and Northern Ireland

In Wales and Northern Ireland the law requires you to display your rating sticker in a prominent place where customers can see it before they enter, such as the front door or main entrance. Staff must also tell customers the rating if they ask. In Wales, takeaway and delivery businesses must put a statement about the rating on menus and leaflets, so a caterer taking orders by flyer needs to print it.

The Welsh rules have been in force since 28 November 2013. A council officer can issue a fixed penalty notice for not displaying a valid rating: £200 if paid within 28 days, reduced to £150 if paid within 14 days. Serious or repeated cases can go to the magistrates' court.

In England, display is voluntary but encouraged. Most venues with a 4 or 5 put the sticker on the door and the logo on their website anyway, because bookers notice when it is missing. If you choose to show your rating online, show the current one.

Appeal, right to reply and re-visits

You have three safeguards, and each suits a different situation. They are run by your local council, and the details below come from council guidance.

An appeal is for when you think the officer applied the scoring wrongly. You must appeal in writing within 21 days of being notified, and the 21 days include weekends and bank holidays. Talk to the officer first: many disagreements are about one item, and a conversation clears it up faster than a formal appeal.

The right to reply lets you publish a short statement next to your rating on the FSA website. Use it to explain unusual circumstances on the day, such as a burst pipe, or to list what you have fixed since.

A re-visit is for when you have put things right and want a new score. Councils charge a cost recovery fee for each requested re-visit, set locally, and Sandwell Council, for example, commits to an unannounced visit within three months of the request and payment. The new rating can go up, down or stay the same, because the officer looks at the whole business again, not just the items you fixed.

Scotland uses a different scheme

Scotland does not use the 0 to 5 scale. Food Standards Scotland and local councils run the Food Hygiene Information Scheme, which covers more than 54,000 food businesses. A business either gets a Pass, meaning it broadly met the legal requirements, or Improvement Required. Two other labels exist: Exempt Premises, for a small number of very low risk places, and Awaiting Inspection for new businesses or new owners.

Scottish caterers have the same three safeguards in principle: a re-visit after improvements, a right to reply and an appeal. Check your council's page for its own time limits and fees.

Keeping a 5 when every event is different

Most low scores in event catering come from the gap between the plan and the busy Saturday. A new chef does not know the cooling method. The allergen sheet was written for last month's menu. The van thermometer battery died. None of these feel like a disaster on the day, but each one shows up in the management score.

Build the checks into how you run each booking. When the event sheet for a wedding lists the menu, guest numbers, dietary needs and timings in one place, the kitchen can attach the right allergen information and plan cooling and transport before the day. Venura's catering and venue apps (web, Android and iOS) hold bookings, menus, quotations, invoices and staff schedules for each event, so the details your team needs are in one record. Venura does not inspect kitchens or issue ratings; your council does that.

After every inspection, file the report with the date of each fix. If the next officer sees that you acted on the last letter within a week, that is evidence of confidence in management, and it is the cheapest point you will ever earn.

Food hygiene rating: questions from the United Kingdom