Food Hygiene Information Scheme

Sometimes it’s great to let someone else do the cooking. But whether you’re picking up a sandwich for lunch or sitting down to a meal for a special occasion, it’s important to know the food you’re eating has been prepared to the standard required by law.

The Food Hygiene Information Scheme (FHIS) helps you choose where to eat out or buy food by giving you clear information about businesses’ food hygiene standards.

The scheme covers more than 54,000 food outlets across all 32 local authorities in Scotland. 

In Scotland, all food outlets must have a food hygiene inspection. This is carried out by their local authority. Following this inspection, the food outlet will be given a Food Hygiene Information Scheme (FHIS) rating based on their inspection results.

There are three different ratings:

• Pass means they meet the legal requirements for food hygiene
• Improvement Required means the business didn’t meet the legal requirements and needs to make improvements
• Exempt Premises means the business has been inspected by a local authority food safety officer, met the pass criteria, but don’t meet the criteria to be part of the scheme - these businesses are low risk to people’s health in terms of food safety and you might not normally think of them as a food business, for example newsagents, chemists or visitor centres selling tins of biscuits

Finding a food hygiene rating

Following the inspection, businesses are provided with a FHIS certificate and/or sticker to display on their door or window. This makes it easy for you to see how they did in their most recent food hygiene inspection. 

Some businesses may choose not to display their rating on their website or premises, but all FHIS ratings are displayed on our website.

Awaiting Inspection

If a new food business has been set up or there is a new owner, it will not have a food hygiene rating. These businesses will be identifiable by their ‘Awaiting Inspection’ certificate or online rating.

FHIS and the Eat Safe Award run side by side. FHIS rates food outlets against the legal food hygiene requirements. The Eat Safe Award recognises food businesses that strive for excellence in delivering food hygiene standards.

If you have a question or complaint about a food business, including about their FHIS result or anything relating to food hygiene, please contact your local authority.
 
If you know of a business that has stopped trading or started trading without a rating, contact your local authority.