A Food Standards Agency rating of 3 means hygiene standards are generally satisfactory.
In other words, a hygiene rating of 3 is good in the sense that there is no imminent risk to public health. But there is room for improvement.
An establishment with a food hygiene rating of 3 will have scored between 25 and 30 points.
Officers add points when there are certain shortcomings found during an inspection. The more points an establishment receives, the worse their hygiene rating will be.
Likewise, the fewer points a business receives, the better their rating will be.
During an inspection, a food safety officer will score a business on each of these three areas:
Inspectors examine how well the establishment prepares and handles food.
They also look at how the business deals with cooking, re-heating, cooling and storing of food.
Inspections also cover things like temperature control and personal hygiene. In other words, how clean the chefs are working (washing of hands etc).
Finally, inspections examine how well a business prevents cross-contamination.
In this area of inspection, officers examine the physical condition of the building.
They look at how good the structure is and how well its maintained. Besides the cleanliness, the following factors are also considered:
This area examines the processes and procedures that are in place to ensure food safety.
This gives the officer an idea of how likely a business is to maintain standards in the future.
To determine the hygiene rating, the FSA adds all the scores together from each of the above areas.
This final score is then used to determine the hygiene rating for the business.
You can read more about how ratings are calculated here.
For any given area of inspection, one business may perform better than another. Yet they could still receive the same rating.
So for example, one business might score a good for Hygienic food handling. But then receive a score of Generally satisfactory for the other two areas.
Another business may score Good when it comes to the Management of food safety. But then receive Generally satisfactory for the other areas.
You can find out how well a business scored in each area by viewing the page for any given business on this website.
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, there are 542,035 food businesses registered with the Food Standards Agency. Out of those: