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 couldn't care less. Our local takeaway got a 1 recently and because we love the food and have never been ill we've carried on using it

I’m okay with 4s as well, anything below troubles me.

Can't say I've ever checked... And I've never had food poisoning in the UK, so maybe I'm lucky.

I've worked in kitchens, half of those temperatures are made up because they haven't been done in a while and you just write random numbers in a safe range down and forget about it for weeks.

@DrinkFeckArseBrick

I think YABU. Food hygiene matters to me, however from speaking to people in the industry I believe the visits are pre organised and only a quick physical inspection of the premises and the rest is all about paperwork. You can have the best written procedures ever but that doesnt actually prove what happens in reality.

The visits aren't preorganized. I've just opened a restaurant and the inspector turned up yesterday with no notice given.

Above 3 is good enough for me, in my experience many places that are 5 just serve warmed up food from brakes rather than cooking genuinely interesting stuff.

Only time cIve ever got squeamish was when I took the kids for an ice cream and heard the staff talking about how another mouse had got into the freezers and caused them to play up . I never returned there after that.

Sometimes they're 4 just because they're using innovative cooking implements or new methods that the inspector doesn't know how to check. It apparently takes a while for the system to catch up with new innovations. Even if they're widely and safely used in other countries.

My sister who works in a food handling business said that a lot of 4 rated, in Wales, are down one point if they don't have in house training.

I'll generally only eat at a 4 or 5, I'm ill often enough from other causes that I want to avoid anything unnecessary.

One of our local restaurants looked lovely but got closed down. Rats running in the food.

I've worked in a 5 rated place.
And the things that went i infrequently witnessed
Food dropped on floor when busy picked up and plated. This was very common occurance
No hot water for handwashing as boiler frequently broke.
No dishwasher soap so water washed only. As no budget for washing liquid
Staff with piss poor personal hygiene
Staff with no level 2 certificates after over a year

We also had our own ratings which were supposedly strict by the company . But we'd be told when they're coming so it was a quick clean the night before and early start.

Most was due to fact the budget ran out over worked and too busy to do the proper paperwork. Example hot hold temp probes. Didn't have time so just faked the figures

Often food was left on the hot hold way to many hours than was allowed

Frequently not infrequently

While I won't touch a 1 or 2 with a bargepole, these things have to be taken into context. There is a restaurant we used to go to regularly until I found a hair in my food on two separate occasions. They have a five rating.

1 is the absolute minimum of standards.. and I am ok with that. A lot of of it is paperwork anyway, not real life getting on your knees and scrubbing.

Always check too that a place has a rating of five, well pre covid as not using food establishments currently. I thought most people checked.

Thanks for all the comments. My takeaways :

• there's little excuse for the bigger names not obtaining a 5
• A 4 is probably fine for smaller independents
• shock, horror: the system isn't perfect, some restaurants are making up their readings, a 5 doesn't mean your food didn't touch the floor
• some people couldn't care less (thus validating the need for industry standards and food hygiene ratings?)

@Taliskerskye

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

What a load of bollocks.

I might do a cursory look of I notice, but I wouldn't actively seek out the information. We rarely go out though.

I don't ever check to be honest so I wouldn't know.

Ive never checked this in my life!

Wouldn’t eat anywhere that wasn’t a 5. I’ve worked in restaurants all my life and it’s really not hard to get a 5!

We live in Norfolk and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anywhere that’s less than a 5, but when we went on holiday to Wales it seemed like every other place was 3! I was really shocked. We struggled to find places to eat.

Don't ever come to Scotland. It's pass/fail here.

Former chef here.
Chain restaurants should definitely be a 5.
I'd be happy to eat in an unbranded at a 4 or 3.
As others have said, sometimes the layout or lack of certain equipment can drop you a point, for example a dish washer.
The correct paper work, diligently filled out can up you a point.
Health inspectors turn up unannounced, and will have a good look in your fridges and freezers to check date labels and such, also will watch you during service to make sure you're following the correct procedures, such as hand washing and cross contamination and whatnot.
Can also depend if they catch you on a good day or a bad day.
A generally satisfactory is just that; they are happy you are doing enough to minimise poisoning someone.

@RaspberryCoulis

Don't ever come to Scotland. It's pass/fail here.

Yeah I wonder whether the pass threshold is higher? Like is 'fail' equivalent to English fail or to a 1 or 2?