To avoid restaurants with food hygiene rating below 5?

[Urchinn]

I'm bemused by a Facebook thread where locals have recommended restaurants which I know to have a food hygiene rating of 3. Do they not know? Do they not care? Is 3 good enough? AIBU to eat only from restaurants with a rating of 5?

I do too, I confess! I’m pretty keen on food hygiene though!

Having worked in a kitchen I can assure you that all sorts goes on even in 5 rated establishments so if you're squeamish about it I think the only way around it is to eat at home!!

I might not care if it was a 4… to be fair, I know nothing about how they’re awarded, but I would assume it (maybe wrongly) that a 4 might be perfectly hygienic but has failed on some part of the paperwork. Which I still think is important. But if I’m seeing a 4, and 100s of glowing reviews, I won’t care.

A 3 though… 🤮

@LindaEllen

Having worked in a kitchen I can assure you that all sorts goes on even in 5 rated establishments so if you're squeamish about it I think the only way around it is to eat at home!!

Oh god yes!

Restaurants can be perfectly safe to eat in but downgraded due to minor paperwork errors.

After attending a session with a council environmental health officer, I would stick at 3 and above. 5 is really about creating a paper trail that smaller businesses may not have the resources to do.

The stories I heard about places with a 1&2

We had a favourite local chippy and it was our “go to” for years. Always delicious and never had a problem. The local paper ran an article on low rated food premises and low and behold, there it was with a ‘zero’ rating and was closed down immediately. I would never, ever have known or suspected if I hadn’t seen that article.

I always check online. Sometimes the hygiene is fine but something like paperwork is incomplete.

Your local council hold the details and they are public information. Google your area and food standard ratings. Your local newspaper probably publishes the link regularly too.

@LadyPoison

Restaurants can be perfectly safe to eat in but downgraded due to minor paperwork errors.

The systems used are one of the three areas considered by inspectors. It's about procedures used to keep customers safe and ensuring records are kept properly. It's hardly minor paperwork.

@LindaEllen

Having worked in a kitchen I can assure you that all sorts goes on even in 5 rated establishments so if you're squeamish about it I think the only way around it is to eat at home!!

Agreed. When I see a rating less than 4 I seriously wonder how bad it must really be... Our local takeaway was a one star and we'd used it for years. We didn't buy from it again until it was rated safe again.

My cats walk on my kitchen worktops so I’ve gone past caring about food ratings … 🙄

They only rate under 4 if they find rats or cockroaches 🪳

@GrimDamnFanjo I have a friend who is a chef and has worked in some very high end establishments. The temperature recording book is commonly known as the bullshit book, just because during a busy service chefs have no time to probe and record the temps of low risk dishes. Same re deliveries.

I feel like good hygiene ratings are basically a rating of how good you are at fudging paperwork and keeping up appearances. I wouldn’t go out of my way to avoid anywhere that was a 3/4/5 but I’d probably be somewhat more concerned about a 1 or 2.

One near us was rated two and I found bugs in my salad 🤢

I don't think I've ever checked the food hygiene rating of a restaurant I've never had any problems though

I know that sometimes if the building is historic, particularly listed, then sometimes a 5 is unattainable just because of the materials the kitchen is built from, but that otherwise the 5 standard would be reached. So I am happy with a 4 in a lovely historic building. If it was all purpose built though I’d be looking for a 5. My uncle was a chief environmental health officer and told stories that would make your hair curl. He retired in the late 80s though so I like to imagine things have improved since then with transparency in the ratings.

Thanks for your votes and comments. Over 65% think I'm being unreasonable. Is that because:
(A) the ratings matter to you, but I'm being too picky and 3 or 4 is fine, or
(B) the ratings don't matter to you: they measure the wrong things, or it's too easy to game the system, or you trust the councils to take any necessary actions against low scoring establishments?

I haven't investigated the standards, but I imagine it's a pretty low bar given that it is dealing with so many mom and pop shops with varying degrees of literacy and education, often operating with thin margins. And nobody is going to be marinading steaks in the toilet when the inspector is on site, so what's going on in those 1, 2 and 3 rated establishments when the inspector isn't around?

How do you find out hygiene star ratings? How long have they been a thing? It has never ever occurred to me to check this out before eating out. I’d want to know opening hours, parking, price, but I’d never think of checking the hygiene stars.

You are presumably an adult, you can eat at or avoid whatever restaurants you like. Why would that be unreasonable?

YANBU

As a (very) ex restaurant manager, I know that there is only one food hygiene rating that any professionally run catering establishment should ever get : 5. It really isn’t a difficult standard to maintain, and in properly run places, standards should be well above those required to score 5.

I’d check on line to see why. Very often as people have said it’s minor paperwork issues and nothing to do with hygiene.

The ratings are generally on the door (although the is is voluntary in England). You can also check here: ratings.food.gov.uk/

I prefer the Scottish ratings - it's either pass of fail - i.e. standards are good enough in which case it's a pass, or not, and it's a fail.

As a PP said above, sometimes it's impossible to get a 5 just because of the layout or age of a building. Also some inspectors will mark down quite heavily for minor issues and others will not. I would avoid 1s and 2s.