The food hygiene rating data published at www.food.gov.uk/ratings are available via an application programming interface (API) in XML and JSON formats. This is a free service and there is no need to register to use it. Terms and conditions apply (see link below), and guidance for developers is available.

Terms and conditions

Read the terms and conditions of using the data and images.

About the data

The data provide the food hygiene rating or inspection result given to a business and reflect the standards of food hygiene found on the date of inspection or visit by the local authority. Businesses include restaurants, pubs, cafés, takeaways, hotels and other places consumers eat, as well as supermarkets and other food shops.

The data are held on behalf of local authorities participating in either the Food Standards Agency's:

  • national Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, or
  • the Food Hygiene Information Scheme (FHIS) in Scotland

Data are only available for local authority areas running either of these schemes. See a list of local authorities running the FHRS or FHIS

System Status

Status updates, usage advice and various other pieces of current information can be found at the System Status Page.

API guidance for developers

The API allows developers access to the underlying food hygiene rating data published at www.food.gov.uk/ratings. Developers can query XML files to return the geocoded data (longitude and latitude data are provided for food businesses). The XML data are updated daily and can be found below, grouped by local authority. Wales’s local authority data can be output in English or Welsh.

The API can also be used to query the live system (the data are automatically updated as local authorities upload and publish data) and return data in XML and JSON formats.

Examples of how to use the API and information about the API can be found in the guidance document for developers:

Images

A set of hygiene rating images is available to be used with the API data. The images must only be used in accordance with the FHRS/FHIS Brand Standard and the terms and conditions

Examples of hygiene rating images, and the sizes available, that can be used with the API data:

Food hygiene rating is ‘5’: Very good Food hygiene rating is ‘5’: Very good Food hygiene rating is ‘5’: Very good

Food Hygiene Information Scheme: Inspection result is ‘Pass’ Food Hygiene Information Scheme: Inspection result is ‘Pass’ Food Hygiene Information Scheme: Inspection result is ‘Pass’

Score descriptors

Downloadable data files (updated daily)

Food hygiene rating data, grouped by local authority, can be downloaded in XML via the links below or JSON format by changing the extension in the url to json, the open data files are updated daily. The live service can be queried by the API’s.

East Counties

East Midlands

London

North East

North West

South East

South West

West Midlands

Yorkshire and Humberside

Northern Ireland

Scotland

Wales