Britain's restaurant hygiene shows more than 5,000 failed inspections

FSA data examined by the Daily Mail found 5,022 food outlets failed hygiene ratings out of 139,593 nationwide. Businesses that fail can request a retest once they have addressed the issues identified in an inspection.

More than 5,000 UK restaurants, cafes and canteens were reported as failing food hygiene inspections in a Daily Mail analysis of Food Standards Agency (FSA) data. The figures cover ratings systems used in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and a separate pass/fail system in Scotland. The FSA described the rating process as identifying premises with poor standards so local officers can act. The reporting also notes that many councils have faced inspector shortages and some premises have not yet been inspected. Key points: - The analysis found 5,022 outlets rated at or below the fail threshold out of 139,593 assessed, about 3.6% nationwide. - Ratings of two or below count as a fail under the England/Wales/Northern Ireland scale; Scotland uses a pass/fail label of "Improvement Required" for failures. - The FSA stated that identifying poorly rated premises shows local authority food officers are carrying out their work and that almost 97% of establishments achieve a rating of "generally satisfactory" or better. - There are reported resource challenges: the number of council food standards inspectors has fallen in the past decade and 10,363 premises had not been inspected at the time of the data extract. - Businesses that fail an inspection can arrange a re-rating after addressing the issues; in serious cases authorities can close premises or pursue enforcement actions. Summary: The data highlights that a small share of food businesses received failing hygiene ratings while the majority scored at or above satisfactory levels. Undetermined at this time: how many of the failed businesses have scheduled re-inspections, though inspectors can follow up and businesses may request retests after remediation.