The headline
South West leads the UK on food hygiene; London trails.
Across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, South West has the highest share of 5-star food businesses at 84.5% (39,257 of 46,449 rated), while London has the lowest at 68.3%. London also carries the UK's highest share of 0–1 star establishments (2.7%, 1,888 premises). A lower 5-star share reflects a region's density and business mix, not that its food is unsafe. Scotland, measured on a separate pass/fail scheme, passes 92.6% of assessed businesses.
UK regions ranked by 5-star share
England's nine regions plus Wales and Northern Ireland, ranked by the share of rated food businesses holding the top 5-star FSA rating. Scotland uses a different scheme and is reported below.
| # | Region | 5★ share | Avg rating | 0–1★ | Rated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South West | 84.5% | 4.77 | 1% | 46,449 |
| 2 | East Midlands | 83.6% | 4.74 | 1.1% | 38,799 |
| 3 | Northern Ireland | 83.5% | 4.77 | 0.4% | 15,401 |
| 4 | North East | 83.3% | 4.74 | 0.8% | 20,670 |
| 5 | East of England | 81.8% | 4.73 | 1% | 47,527 |
| 6 | South East | 81.2% | 4.71 | 1.1% | 70,748 |
| 7 | Yorkshire and the Humber | 78.3% | 4.66 | 1.3% | 43,925 |
| 8 | Wales | 75.5% | 4.63 | 1.3% | 30,312 |
| 9 | West Midlands | 75.3% | 4.58 | 2.5% | 42,289 |
| 10 | North West | 75.1% | 4.58 | 2% | 56,938 |
| 11 | London | 68.3% | 4.46 | 2.7% | 70,761 |
Aggregated from 360 local authorities. Rated = establishments with a published 0–5 rating (premises awaiting inspection or exempt are excluded from each region's denominator).
Scotland is measured differently
Scotland's 32 councils use the Food Hygiene Information Scheme (FHIS) — a pass/fail scheme, not the 0–5 scale used in the table above. Of 46,272 assessed Scottish businesses, 92.6% pass, and 503 hold the additional Eat Safe award for exceeding the basics. The remaining 3,428 are marked Improvement Required. Because the scales differ, Scotland is reported separately rather than folded into the 5-star regional figures.
Why the gap between regions?
The spread between the best and worst regions is 16.2 percentage points of 5-star share. London's lower figure is driven by density and business mix — a higher concentration of small independent kitchens, takeaways and street food, which more often sit at 3–4 stars than at the top mark, rather than a higher rate of genuinely unsafe premises. Even in London, only 2.7% of rated establishments score 0 or 1 star. South West, with a broader mix of larger and rural premises, tops the table at 84.5% 5-star.
Cite this report
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Citation
GeraEats (2026). UK Food Hygiene by Region 2026. Retrieved from https://geraeats.com/reports/uk-food-hygiene-by-region-2026Embed (HTML)
<blockquote>South West leads the UK on food hygiene with 84.5% of food businesses rated 5-star; London trails at 68.3% (FSA data, 2026-06-12) — <a href="https://geraeats.com/reports/uk-food-hygiene-by-region-2026">UK Food Hygiene by Region 2026</a>, GeraEats.</blockquote>Explore the data
- The State of UK Restaurant Hygiene 2026 — the national pass rate, best and worst local authorities and the most common failures.
- UK Food Hygiene by Business Type 2026 — how restaurants, takeaways, cafes and food shops compare.
- UK Food Hygiene Ratings Directory — the full dataset, browsable by local authority and postcode area.
- GeraCompliance — food safety and regulatory checks for businesses.
Methodology
Each region's figures are computed directly from the Food Standards Agency Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) public register by summing the rating distributions of its constituent local authorities. 360 authorities are mapped to their ONS region (England) or UK nation (Wales, Northern Ireland), and the five-star share, average rating and 0–1 star share are recomputed over each region's rated establishments only — premises awaiting inspection or exempt are excluded. Scotland uses the FHIS pass/fail scheme and is reported separately. No figures are estimated or modelled. Data as of 2026-06-12.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Food hygiene ratings are sourced from the Food Standards Agency at ratings.food.gov.uk. Ratings reflect the most recent inspection on record and may have changed since publication.