Apply for a Food Hygiene Rating appeal or re-score: a step-by-step guide

Use this step-by-step guide to find out what you can do, if one of our food safety inspectors awards your business a Food Hygiene Rating (FHR) of less than 5, or 'very good'. 

Getting, and keeping, the top Food Hygiene Rating score of 5 is a central part of running a successful food business. Customers, events organisers, delivery services or other traders may not want to use your products or services, if you can't demonstrate good food safety practice, by this recognised standard.

WarningIf there are serious problems with food hygiene, our officers can order you to suspend trading, or even shut your business completely

1. Step 1:

   One of our officers will award your business a FHR after a routine visit, or a visit to investigate a complaint. Ratings range from 0 ('urgent improvement necessary') to 5 ('very good'). See our Food Hygiene Rating Scheme Policy to find out exactly how the rating calculations work.  

   The officer should also do the following:

   • Tell you the Food Hygiene Rating for your business, either in person during the visit, or immediately afterwards, in writing
   • Give you a sticker showing your FHR
   • Discuss any issues that you should address, to improve food hygiene and safety
   • Give you a written record of the things you need to do
   • Leave you their contact details

   If the officer identifies serious problems, they may return to inspect any works they tell you to do. These revisits are part of our statutory role to protect public health, and will not result in a change to your original FHR. 

2. Step 2 2:

   1. Once your business has a FHR, there are four courses of action you can take.

      • Accept the rating
      • Appeal against the rating
      • Add your own comments, or response to your rating, where it is published online
      • Make recommended changes, and apply for a re-score visit

      You may choose to take more than one of these four options, or complete them in a different sequence, depending on your circumstances. 

      Read the steps below, to find out more about the timescales, conditions and any costs involved in each of these courses of action.

3. Step 3:

   We normally publish online all FHRs of 5, within 14 days of our inspection. If the inspector has given your business a rating of less than 5, we wait 25 days before publication, to give you time to appeal if you want to.

   If you decide that you don't want to appeal, you can ask us to publish your rating immediately. You can tell your inspector directly during their visit, or by contacting us by email. You will also need to confirm that you don't want to appeal against the rating. Email Public_Protection@bathnes.gov.uk to make your request. We will publish your rating online within 3 days of your request.

4. Step 4:

   If you think your rating is not accurate, you can make an appeal. Appealing is free of charge, and we will not publish the rating online until the appeal process is over.

   You have 21 days to appeal, from the time you get our letter that states your rating. First, you should contact the officer who made your inspection. Discuss with them the reasons for their rating. If you still want to appeal after this conversation, you must contact us in writing.

   How to appeal

   Using our online service is the quickest and most efficient way of doing this.

   Online

   By email

   Download our Food Hygiene Rating Appeal form. Complete it on your computer or phone, and email it to Public_Protection@bathnes.gov.uk

   By post

   Download and print a paper copy of our Food Hygiene Rating Appeal form. Send your completed form to Public Protection, Bath & North East Somerset Council, Lewis House, Bath, BA1 1JG.

   The appeal decision

   The Lead Officer for Food will make the final decision on your appeal, and we will inform you in writing within 21 days of the date you submitted the appeal.

   • If we uphold your appeal, we will contact you to organise a new visit from one of our Food Safety Officers. They will award a new rating, based on their visit. We will only publish your rating, when this second visit is complete.
   • If we reject your appeal, we will publish your FHR online, once the appeal process is over. 

   If you're not satisfied with the way we've handled your appeal

   You have the right to challenge our appeal decision by judicial review. You can make a complaint, if you feel that we have not treated you fairly, or followed the procedures set out in our Food Hygiene Rating Scheme policy. You will need to show evidence of your claims.

5. Step5

   You can ask us to publish comments online with your Food Hygiene Rating. If you are not appealing your rating, and are planning to apply for a paid re-score visit, we would recommend submitting comments to cover the period until the re-score is complete. 

   This service is free, but there are limits to what we will publish:

   • You can use this tool to explain any mitigation or unusual issues that were present at the time of the visit.
   • If you have improved hygiene standards since your last inspection, you can add comments to explain what you have done.
   • We will not publish offensive, defamatory, inaccurate, or irrelevant content, complaints about the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme or the officer who inspected your business.

   Please ensure you include the full address of your business, the name of the original food safety officer who inspected your premises, and any reference number given to you at or after the inspection.

6. Step 6:

   You can request a FHR re-score visit, any time from 3 months after the original officer's visit, and award of a rating. It doesn't matter whether you made an appeal after that visit, or accepted the original rating. 

   Before you apply

   You will need to show evidence that you have made any changes to your business that the officer identified during their original visit. This could involve things like the following:

   • Training for your staff
   • New equipment
   • Improvements to the condition of your premises
   • The way you manage and document food safety

   WarningIf you don't have proof of the changes you have made, we may reject your application for a re-score visit

   Submit your application

   Depending on how long ago your business last had an FHR inspection, your re-score visit may be free, or a chargeable service.

   Check if you'll need to pay

   Circumstances around the COVID-19 pandemic led to a large backlog of routine FHR visits to businesses. It may be that your rating is now out of date. If have not had a routine inspection since 1 July 2022, you can request a free re-score visit. Just write to the original inspecting officer. They will visit your business, unannounced, within 3 months of your request, to update your FHR.

    If your original visit was after 1 July 2022, you'll need to pay for your re-score visit. The service costs £194, to cover the officer inspection, ratings award and processing that we would not otherwise be making. We'll ask for payment when you apply for the service.

7. Step 7:

   1. There is no guarantee that a re-score visit will result in a higher FHR for your business. The inspecting officer cannot ignore any new issues that have appeared since the original inspection when awarding a new rating. Your rating can go up, down or remain the same, based on the standards at the time of the visit.

      You can apply for multiple re-score visits, subject to the following conditions:

      • You will need to wait 3 months between each visit.
      • We may refuse further applications, if you cannot demonstrate that you have completed requested works.
      • There will be a separate charge for each new visit.

8. Step 8:

   Find out more about our ‘Business Advice Service. This personalised package for food businesses in our area will give you resources and advice tailored to your own premises and circumstances.

View our Food Hygiene Rating Scheme policy, for the full detail of how we handle our statutory duties to enforce food safety in B&NES, via this national scheme.