UK Food Hygiene Ratings - FSA Business Data

Export food-business ratings from the Food Standards Agency's public API. Search by business name, town, address, postcode, local authority or business type, and download a flat dataset in JSON, CSV or Excel.

Use it to maintain restaurant directories, check supplier records, compare branches and prepare hospitality market research. Each result includes the inspection date, source extraction timestamp and a link to the original business record.

Start a run

The default input searches for Pret A Manger in London and returns up to 20 businesses. Click Start without changing the input to try it.

{
  "name": "Pret A Manger",
  "address": "London",
  "maxItems": 20,
  "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false }
}

Clear name or address with an empty string to remove that filter. A supplied localAuthorityId or businessTypeId is combined with the other filters.

Input

Field	Default	Meaning
name	Pret A Manger	Business-name search. Empty means any name.
address	London	Town, address or postcode search. Empty means any area.
localAuthorityId	0	Optional FSA authority ID; zero disables this filter. This differs from an authority's published code.
businessTypeId	0	Optional FSA business-type ID. Restaurant/Cafe/Canteen is 1.
maxItems	20	Maximum unique output records, 1–10,000.
pageSize	100	Records per source request, 1–100; also capped by maxItems.
maxPages	100	Maximum source pages, 1–500. May return fewer than maxItems.
requestDelaySeconds	1.2	Minimum request interval, 1–60 seconds.
proxyConfiguration	Proxy off	Optional Apify/custom proxy. A proxy is not required by the source.

Authority and business-type identifiers are listed in the official API index. Searches use the FSA's own matching behavior; an address term is not a geographic boundary.

Output

One row represents one establishment, identified by the string fhrsId. Optional unavailable fields are null. Ratings stay strings so values such as Pass, Exempt and AwaitingInspection retain their meaning. Scores and coordinates are numeric; zero scores are preserved. The dataset contains no email or telephone fields.

The following is one complete record from the small live test. It is a dated example, not a statement of the business's current rating. The full three-record sample is in sample-output.json.

{
  "fhrsId": "902473",
  "businessName": "Pret A Manger",
  "businessType": "Takeaway/sandwich shop",
  "businessTypeId": 7844,
  "address": "London City Airport, London",
  "postcode": "E16 2PX",
  "rating": "4",
  "ratingDate": "2026-03-24",
  "ratingKey": "fhrs_4_en-gb",
  "schemeType": "FHRS",
  "newRatingPending": false,
  "hygieneScore": 10,
  "structuralScore": 5,
  "managementScore": 5,
  "localAuthorityName": "City of London Corporation",
  "localAuthorityCode": "508",
  "latitude": null,
  "longitude": null,
  "sourceUrl": "https://ratings.food.gov.uk/business/902473",
  "sourceExtractedAt": "2026-09-28T23:50:27.8192558+01:00",
  "fetchedAt": "2026-09-28T22:50:30Z",
  "dataSource": "Food Standards Agency",
  "licenseUrl": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/"
}

Pricing

Free during launch: you only pay Apify's normal platform usage, which is a fraction of a cent for a typical run. Paid pricing may be introduced later (about $0.80 per 1,000 saved businesses); Apify announces any change on the Store pricing tab at least 14 days in advance.

Duplicate records are discarded before saving.

FAQ and limitations

Do I need an FSA account or API key? No. The official API currently provides access without registration.

Does a rating describe the business today? It describes the recorded inspection. Keep ratingDate, sourceExtractedAt and fetchedAt with downstream copies, and consult sourceUrl for current information.

Why are some ratings text rather than numbers? The API includes different schemes and non-numeric statuses. Read schemeType and rating together; do not compare an FHIS label numerically with an FHRS rating.

Why are fewer rows returned? The search may have fewer matches, maxPages or the Apify spending limit may be reached, or malformed source records may be skipped. RUN_STATS in the key-value store records counts and the stopping reason. A changed response format or repeated page fails visibly rather than pretending the result is complete.

Can I export the whole country every day? This actor is for bounded searches. The FSA recommends its nightly open-data files for regular full downloads. This actor uses one request at a time and pages of at most 100. Offset pagination over a changing source cannot guarantee a complete point-in-time snapshot.

Does it track changes between runs? Each run is a fresh snapshot. Join successive exports on fhrsId in your own workflow. Deduplication applies within one uninterrupted run; automatic resume after a restart is not provided.

Responsible use and attribution

Contains Food Standards Agency information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Preserve source attribution and dates when sharing data. This actor is independent of the FSA and uses no FSA logos or rating imagery. Follow the FSA reuse terms.

Use business records responsibly. Do not infer or recover withheld addresses or personal contact information. Robots.txt is checked at runtime; denied paths, ambiguous policies and access failures stop the run. Retries are limited to temporary errors. Proxy settings do not change these rules.

Local development

Requires Python 3.13. Install requirements-dev.txt in a virtual environment, then run python -m pytest -q and python -m src --input test-input.json from this actor directory. Local SDK storage stays in the ignored storage/ directory. See TESTING.md for the recorded commands and results.