A rating of 1 or 2 doesn't just look bad on the door sticker — it can get a listing suppressed on Deliveroo or Uber Eats. Three separate processes exist to deal with it, and using the wrong one wastes time and money.
Three Different Processes — Don't Confuse Them
The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS), run by local authorities in partnership with the Food Standards Agency, scores businesses from 0 to 5 based on food hygiene and safety procedures, structural compliance, and confidence in management, assessed at a planned inspection. You can look up any business's current published rating on the FSA's own Food Hygiene Rating Scheme lookup before deciding which of the three routes below actually applies to your situation. If a business disagrees with its rating, there are three distinct routes available, each serving a different purpose:
- Appeal — used when you believe the rating given does not accurately reflect the hygiene standards actually found at the time of inspection. This disputes the inspector's judgment on that specific visit.
- Right to reply — not a dispute at all. This lets you publish a public statement alongside your rating explaining improvements made since the inspection, or unusual circumstances at the time. It doesn't change the number, only the context shown next to it.
- Revisit — a paid, full re-inspection requested once you've made the improvements an officer identified. This is the only route that can actually produce a new rating number.
Before starting any of these, contact the officer who conducted the original inspection — most local authorities expect this first step, and it often clarifies exactly what triggered the lower score before you commit time or money to a formal process.
What a Revisit Actually Costs
Revisit fees are set independently by each local authority in England (Wales and Northern Ireland charge under their own statutory schemes), and vary meaningfully — councils have published fees ranging roughly from around £185 up to £350 for a standard revisit, with some offering an expedited "urgent" revisit at a higher fee for a faster turnaround. Always check your specific local authority's current published fee rather than assuming a figure from another council or an older source — several authorities have raised prices for the 2026/27 cycle.
Importantly, the officer reassesses your overall standards at the time of the revisit, not narrowly the specific issues you were told to fix — so a revisit carries some risk that unrelated points could affect the outcome, for better or worse. Most authorities place no limit on how many times a business can request a revisit once genuine improvements have been made.
Correcting Deficiencies Under Safer Food, Better Business (SFBB)
Most low ratings trace back to gaps in the "confidence in management" category — specifically, whether the business has a working food safety management system, commonly built around the FSA's Safer Food, Better Business (SFBB) framework: documented cleaning schedules, temperature control records, and staff training evidence. Before requesting a costly revisit, audit your SFBB diary or equivalent system against exactly what the inspection report flagged — a revisit requested before the underlying management system is genuinely fixed risks paying the fee twice.
Timeline for Publication and Appeals
Ratings are typically published around 21 days after inspection unless a business requests early publication (if happy with the result) or is within an active appeal period, which can run up to roughly five weeks depending on the authority. If you intend to appeal, do so in writing within the window your specific local authority sets — check the exact deadline with them directly, as it isn't uniform nationwide.
Related Kibbo Tools
Sources
- Food Standards Agency — Appeal your food hygiene rating. food.gov.uk
- Food Standards Agency — Food hygiene rating scheme safeguards for food businesses. food.gov.uk