Star ratings

When our environmental health inspectors visit food businesses as part of the Scores on the Doors scheme, they award each premises a star rating.

Five is the highest score and zero is the lowest.

The ratings are part of a UK-wide scoring system used by all councils which take part in Scores on the Doors.

They relate only to food hygiene standards, not to the food served or the quality of service received.

Our inspectors have now visited nearly all food businesses in Belfast, except those which do not need assessing, for example, chemists.

So far, 82 per cent of premises have scored three stars or above, meaning they have achieved excellent, very good or good levels of compliance with food hygiene regulations.

From that, 14 per cent have been awarded five stars and 32 per cent have received four stars.

The table below shows what each star rating means:

Scores on the Doors star ratings
Star rating	Standard	What does the rating mean?
Five stars	Excellent	Very high standards of food safety management Fully compliant with food safety law
Four stars	Very good	Good food safety management High standard of compliance with food safety law
Three stars	Good	Good level of legal compliance Some more effort might be required
Two stars	Broadly compliant	Broadly compliant with food safety law More effort is required to meet all legal requirements
One star	Poor	Poor level of compliance with food safety law Much more effort is required
No stars	Very poor	A general failure to comply with legal requirements Little or no appreciation of food safety Major effort is required