🔎 UK Food Hygiene Establishment Check

A per-identity check: submit identifiers, get one official answer each. Billed per completed official resolution — a not-found, ambiguous, or unavailable outcome is returned but never charged.

Output is one uk_fsa_establishment_answer row per result; billing is pay-per-event, the value event being one establishment hygiene check (a $0.02 start fee per run, then $0.05 per establishment hygiene check). Source: api.ratings.food.gov.uk.

No login, no API key and no CAPTCHA solving are involved: the source is read logged-out with an identified contact User-Agent.

📊 Sample Output

Real rows from run VjbPpgjVawBtR9A8a on build 0.1.4 (2026-09-17), the same input as the Quick start below — every value is as the source published it (emails masked, long text shortened):

input	query_mode	business_type	local_authority	address	outcome
618909	id	Restaurant/Cafe/Canteen	North Northamptonshire	Unit 2 Stanier Retail Park, Stanier Close, Kettering, Northamptonshire	answer
McDonalds	name				ambiguous

The run finished with the status message: NORMAL: 1 billable answer(s), 1 definitive non-billable (not-found/ambiguous), 0 unavailable, 0 unparseable of 2 | establishment-hygiene-check billable=1 | establishment-hygiene-check charged=1

✅ What you get

Each row is flat JSON with these fields (from the dataset schema and the sample run; a field the source does not publish for a given row is null):

• record_type (string/null) — e.g. uk_fsa_establishment_answer
• input (string/null) — e.g. 618909
• query_mode (string/null) — e.g. id
• fhrsid (string/null) — e.g. 618909
• business_name (string/null) — e.g. McDonalds
• business_type (string/null) — e.g. Restaurant/Cafe/Canteen
• rating_value (string/null) — e.g. 5
• rating_date (string/null) — e.g. 2026-08-19
• new_rating_pending (boolean/null) — e.g. False
• local_authority (string/null) — e.g. North Northamptonshire
• address (string/null) — e.g. Unit 2 Stanier Retail Park, Stanier Close, Kettering, Northamptonshire
• post_code (string/null) — e.g. NN16 9XW
• scheme_type (string/null) — e.g. FHRS
• outcome (string/null) — e.g. answer
• outcome_reason (string/null) — e.g. name matched more than one establishment — resolve by FHRSID
• source (string/null) — e.g. https://api.ratings.food.gov.uk

What you get

One record per submitted identity. A resolved identity carries the official fields verbatim; fields the source withholds are honest null with a reason. Not-found, ambiguous, and service-unavailable outcomes are distinguished in the outcome field and are not billed. A run that gets no definitive result at all fails loud and charges nothing.

⚙️ Sample inputs

1. Quick start — the Store example (this is what the sample above came from)

{
  "establishments": [
    "618909",
    "McDonalds"
  ]
}

The sample run charged exactly: 1 × $0.02 apify-actor-start + 1 × $0.05 establishment-hygiene-check = $0.07 on the Free tier — every delivered row was billed.

2. A smaller, narrowed run

{
  "establishments": [
    "618909",
    "McDonalds"
  ]
}

A bounded run for checking the field shape before scheduling.

3. A full-size run

{
  "establishments": [
    "618909",
    "McDonalds"
  ]
}

The same input run on a schedule; each run is billed only for what it delivers.

🧾 JSON sample record

One real record from run VjbPpgjVawBtR9A8a, exactly as it lands in the dataset (emails masked, long text shortened):

{
  "record_type": "uk_fsa_establishment_answer",
  "input": "618909",
  "query_mode": "id",
  "fhrsid": "618909",
  "business_name": "McDonalds",
  "business_type": "Restaurant/Cafe/Canteen",
  "rating_value": "5",
  "rating_date": "2026-08-19",
  "new_rating_pending": false,
  "local_authority": "North Northamptonshire",
  "address": "Unit 2 Stanier Retail Park, Stanier Close, Kettering, Northamptonshire",
  "post_code": "NN16 9XW",
  "scheme_type": "FHRS",
  "outcome": "answer",
  "outcome_reason": null,
  "source": "https://api.ratings.food.gov.uk"
}

🔧 How it works

Transport. Plain HTTPS from the Apify platform, no proxy. Every request carries an identified contact User-Agent.

Charging. Each establishment hygiene check is charged at the moment it is pushed (establishment-hygiene-check); a row that fails to charge is not delivered, so the dataset count always equals the charged count.

How it behaves

Each identity is resolved against the official FSA food-hygiene ratings API. An FHRSID resolves directly to one establishment; a name matching more than one returns an ambiguity (resolve by FHRSID) and is not billed. A resolved establishment returns its rating value, rating date, business type, local authority, and address verbatim. An unknown FHRSID is not-found and not billed. One-establishment verification twin of the uk-food-hygiene-prospect-finder.

Billing

Event	FREE	BRONZE	SILVER	GOLD+
apify-actor-start (one-time actor start)	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02
establishment-hygiene-check (per completed resolution)	$0.05	$0.045	$0.04	$0.0335

Charged once per completed official resolution. Not-found, ambiguous, and service-fault outcomes are emitted but never charged. Start fee $0.02.

Source

https://api.ratings.food.gov.uk

What is not done. No login, no cookie or CAPTCHA bypass, no private or personal-account data, no browser automation.

💰 Pricing example

Event	Free	Bronze	Silver	Gold
Actor Start (apify-actor-start)	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02
Establishment Hygiene Check (establishment-hygiene-check)	$0.05	$0.04	$0.04	$0.03

Worked at the live Free-tier price:

• 2 establishment hygiene checks: $0.02 start + 2 × $0.05 = $0.12
• 25 establishment hygiene checks: $0.02 start + 25 × $0.05 = $1.27
• 100 establishment hygiene checks: $0.02 start + 100 × $0.05 = $5.02

A run that delivers zero rows charges the $0.02 start fee only. A BLOCKED run (source refused) fails loud and charges no value event. The start fee is charged once per GB of run memory; the default run memory is 1024 MB.

Yield on the sample run: NORMAL: 1 billable answer(s), 1 definitive non-billable (not-found/ambiguous), 0 unavailable, 0 unparseable of 2 | establishment-hygiene-check billable=1 | establishment-hygiene-check charged=1.

⚖️ Legal & ToS

This actor reads public, logged-out pages and feeds published by api.ratings.food.gov.uk. It collects only what the source publishes to any visitor, identifies itself with a contact User-Agent, and does not access accounts, private data or anything behind authentication. Use the output in line with the source's terms and your local law; the intended use is B2B research and monitoring.

❓ FAQ

Q: Do I need an API key or a login?
A: No. The source (api.ratings.food.gov.uk) is read logged-out; the input schema has no key field and the actor carries no secrets.

Q: Why did my run return 0 rows?
A: Read the run's status message. GENUINE_EMPTY means the source was read and had nothing in scope for your input; BLOCKED means the source refused and the run failed without billing a value event — retry later or narrow the input. A zero-row run bills the start fee only.

Q: How fresh is the data?
A: Every run reads the source live at run time; nothing is cached between runs. Put it on a schedule for a continuous feed.

Q: What formats can I export?
A: The dataset downloads as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or RSS from the run's Dataset tab or the Apify API, and any run can push to a webhook or integration.

Q: How is this different from the other company registry checks actors?
A: Same output shape and billing model; this one covers api.ratings.food.gov.uk. The siblings under Related Actors cover the other sources or slices — run several on one schedule for a combined feed.

Q: Are there rate limits?
A: The actor paces itself against the source; there is no per-buyer limit beyond your Apify plan's concurrency.

🆘 Troubleshooting

• Run FAILED with BLOCKED → the source refused the request or changed its page shape → nothing was billed beyond the start fee; retry after a while, and if it persists open an Issue with the run id.
• Fewer rows than expected → the source had fewer items in scope → widen the input.
• Input validation error on start → a field is outside the schema's allowed values → start from the Quick start block and change one field at a time.
• Run TIMED-OUT → a very wide request on a slow day → raise the run timeout in Run options or narrow the input; what was delivered before the timeout is still in the dataset.

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