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Food Hygiene Rating Scheme Appeals – What Is The Problem?

Food Hygiene Rating Scheme Appeals: An Under-Used, Yet Important Safeguard

Every year, thousands of food businesses, just like yours, receive a Food Hygiene Rating.  As a food business owner,  a low food hygiene rating is a stain on your business’s reputation.  This could dramatically reduce customer trust and directly impact your bottom line. When potential customers see a low score on your door, they may simply walk away, without ever giving your business a future glance. What should you do when you think your hygiene rating is wrong or unfair? Well, the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme Appeals procedure has been built into the system for this purpose.  The stark fact is that few business owners use the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme Appeals procedure to challenge an unfair food hygiene rating. This matters tremendously. And it needs to change.

Food Hygiene Rating Scheme: The Appeals Procedure Is A Key Safeguard

Let’s think of the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme as a safety net for public health. It has been designed with good intentions – to protect consumers and maintain high standards of safety. But like trying to catch fish with a net, sometimes the wrong things get caught, and the right things slip through. The regulators themselves acknowledge this imperfection within the system. It’s similar to how a good justice system needs appeal courts – no judgment is infallible. This is why the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme includes an appeals process. It is an important safeguard to prevent your business being labelled with a rating you disagree with.

Food Hygiene Rating Scheme: What Does Appealing Protect Against?

Appealing a Food Hygiene Rating protects against an unfair or incorrect rating. Let’s consider some examples:

• Human error: EHO inspections inevitably involve subjective judgment. Just as a teacher might grade essays differently, EHOs can interpret inspection situations differently.

 • Inconsistency: Two different EHOs may inspect the same premises and focus on different aspects or interpret guidelines differently. EHOs therefore receive consistency training to try to minimise the risk that they award food hygiene ratings in an inconsistent manner.

 • Misinterpretation:  Perhaps your staff member called in sick on EHO inspection day. One-off situations might not reflect your day-to-day standards, and you may feel aggrieved. However, your hygiene rating is a snap-shot taken at a specific point in time. As most inspections are unannounced, catching your business off-guard is highly possible. But this is not a defence.  

So what can you do if your business is awarded a food hygiene rating and you disagree with the score?

Your Right To Appeal A Food Hygiene Rating

Think about what would happen if you received a parking ticket. You may feel that you have a legitimate reason to dispute it. And so you may decide to use the appeals procedure. Similarly, as a food business owner, where you feel your Food Hygiene Rating is unfair or wrong you can challenge it.  This is your right.

Appealing A Food Hygiene Rating: The Reality

The appeals procedure is an important built-in safeguard within the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme.  Yet, many businesses may not realise this option is available to them. Instead, they may gravitate towards another more visible safeguard – the re-inspection procedure – which requires payment of a fee to obtain a new score. Fees for re-inspection have gone up.  It is a way for Local Authorities to recover their costs. In 2025, in Cardiff, Swansea and Carmarthen the re-inspection fee is around £255. In comparison, there is no fee to use the Food Hygiene Rating appeals procedure.

Food Hygiene Rating Scheme Appeals: A Broken System?

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has a duty to review the operation of the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) appeals system in Wales on an annual basis. 

The February 2024 annual report to the Senedd Cymru revealed a startling statistic: less than 1% of businesses appeal their food hygiene rating.  In fact, there has been little change in the appeal figures since the Scheme came into existence, over ten years ago.  For a system designed with such a critical safeguard, this is not just underwhelming – it’s alarming. The FSA claims businesses are generally aware of the appeals procedure. If businesses truly understand the appeals procedure, why aren’t they using it?  Something does not add up.

Why Don’t More Businesses Make An Appeal Against Their Food Hygiene Rating?

Let’s consider the possible reasons as to why businesses, just like yours, may not appeal an unfair or wrong Food Hygiene Rating.

1. Lack of Awareness. As a Business owner, you may not have been properly informed about your right of appeal.  The information exists out there, but it may not be effectively communicated to you.

2. Fear of Retaliation. As a business owner, you may worry about confrontation.  What I mean is, you may be concerned about questioning an EHO’s expertise or authority.  Perhaps you may be concerned that challenging an EHO’s decision might result in harsh treatment in future inspections?

3. Navigating A Complex, Uncertain Process. While the rescore process may feel relatively straightforward (pay your fee, prepare, get reinspected), the appeals system may seem shrouded in complexity, uncertainty and bureaucracy.  You may decide not to appeal because the process feels too intimidating. 

4. Risk vs Cost.  Deciding whether to appeal would involve a calculated risk.  An appeal would take up time and effort and there would be a cost associated with this. The likelihood of success will be unknown.  As a business owner, you may weigh this up and decide that appealing a low Food Hygiene Rating is simply not a risk worth taking. 

5. Lack Of Technical Expertise. The language used by food experts is very different to the language used by a layperson.  If you are a small food business owner, you may lack technical food safety expertise within your team.  And this may explain why few businesses use the appeals procedure.

Food Hygiene Rating Scheme Appeals: Final Thoughts

The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme appeals process exists for a reason – it is there as a means of protection when things go wrong. But if less than 1% of businesses are using it, this safeguard is not working as intended.  The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme has been operating for over ten years. During this period, the number of businesses using the appeals safeguard have remained static. Rather than addressing this fundamental problem, businesses are being channelled toward a paid safeguard – the re-inspection process.  Nevertheless, as a business owner, you may have legitimate grounds for appeal.  Without appealing,  your voice will remain silenced.  What can you do?  Well talk to your EHO about the appeals procedure.  Ask questions.  Start that conversation.  Appealing is your right.  It belongs to you

What Needs To Change?

There needs to be:

 • Greater business awareness about the appeals process: clear communication at every inspection before the EHO leaves the premises.

• A simpler, more transparent appeals system that businesses can navigate, with templates and examples that can be used to make the process feel less intimidating and more user friendly.

• A system that doesn’t inadvertently push businesses towards paying for a reinspection, when a more appropriate safeguard is to appeal.

• And finally, when a key fairness mechanism is virtually unused, isn’t it time to understand why this is the case?  Only in doing so, can the appeals safeguard be made more useable, and more effective.