Food Hygiene Rating Scheme

Food businesses are inspected regularly and most are awarded a score under the national Food Hygiene Rating Scheme. This score is worked out based on three areas:

  • Cleaning and structure
  • Food safety and hygiene
  • Confidence in management, including training and documentation

Appeal your score

If you are a food business and have been recently scored under the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme you are entitled to appeal your food hygiene ratings score if you disagree with the food inspector's judgement.

There is no payable charge for an appeal but it must be submitted within the first 21 days of when you were notified of your Food Hygiene Ratings score.  To appeal your score, contact us in writing either by post or email with your reasons why you believe the score was incorrectly assessed. Another officer will look at the inspection and report back to you. 

Reinspection

A reinspection can be requested at any time. Please note that there is a charge of £174.70 for each requested food hygiene rating re-inspection which must be paid in advance by cheque or the online form below.

You will need to request this in one of the following ways:

  • Completing the ‘Your Food Hygiene Rating’ leaflet you will have been provided with after your inspection
  • Completing the online form linked below
  • By using one of the standard request forms available on the Food Standards Agency website

Written or emailed requests will also be accepted, provided they include all the requisite information on the standard form and are paid for.

Verbal requests will not be accepted.

Right to reply

Have your 'right to reply' on the national website beside your score. You can explain what happened and what you have done since then to improve (no charge payable).

To place your comment on the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme website please complete and return the Food Hygiene right to reply form below to fhrs@melton.gov.uk.

Scores can be found on the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme website.

Food hygiene inspections and revisits are generally unannounced.

Publishing your score early

There is a standard period of 21 days for appeals to be received after a score has been given. Because of this, new scores of 0-4 are not published on the national website until the appeal period has lapsed. If, however you are happy for your score to be published before the expiry of the appeal period, please write or email us with your request.

Consumer Information

If you are a customer and wish to check if a business you are buying from is registered, you can check the national Food Hygiene Rating Scheme website for the name of the business.  

This will show whether they have been registered.  If they are not there, you should ask yourself whether you want to buy food from someone that has not been verified and checked by Environmental Health.

Last updated 10 May 2024
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