# UK Food Hygiene Ratings (`sterlingverify/uk-food-hygiene`) Actor

Search the official Food Standards Agency (FSA) hygiene ratings by town, postcode, name and business type. Get restaurants, takeaways, cafes, pubs and shops with address, rating, inspection date, local authority and coordinates: ready-made leads for POS, card terminal and payments sales, or due dili

- **URL**: https://apify.com/sterlingverify/uk-food-hygiene.md
- **Developed by:** [Luke Mangan](https://apify.com/sterlingverify) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Business, Travel
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.00 / 1,000 establishment returneds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## UK Food Hygiene Ratings

Search the official Food Standards Agency (FSA) hygiene ratings by town, postcode, name and business type. Get restaurants, takeaways, cafes, pubs and shops with address, rating, inspection date, local authority and coordinates: ready-made leads for POS, card terminal and payments sales, or due diligence on food merchants.

### How it works

Uses the official FSA Food Hygiene Rating Scheme API (api.ratings.food.gov.uk), no key needed. Data is published under the UK Open Government Licence v3.0, so commercial reuse is allowed with attribution ('Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0'). Covers England, Wales, Northern Ireland (FHRS) and Scotland (FHIS: Pass / Improvement Required). Bad or empty searches are reported as rows with `ok: false` and are not charged.

### Output

`businessName, businessType, address, postcode, rating, ratingDate, localAuthority, latitude, longitude, fhrsId, url, ok`

### Pricing (pay-per-event)

- `establishment`: **$0.001** per result ($1 / 1,000). Platform usage is included; you pay only for results.

### Example input

```json
{
  "searches": [
    {
      "location": "Manchester",
      "businessType": "Restaurant/Cafe/Canteen"
    },
    {
      "postcode": "LS1"
    }
  ],
  "maxItemsPerSearch": 100
}
```

### Example output

```json
{
  "businessName": "Chopstix",
  "businessType": "Takeaway/sandwich shop",
  "address": "16 Leeds Skelton Lake Services, Leeds",
  "postcode": "LS9 0AS",
  "rating": "5",
  "ratingDate": "2024-03-12",
  "localAuthority": "Leeds",
  "latitude": "53.79",
  "longitude": "-1.46",
  "fhrsId": 1271708,
  "url": "https://ratings.food.gov.uk/business/1271708",
  "ok": true
}
```

### Disclaimer

Ratings reflect the last inspection and can change. Records are businesses, not individuals, but some sole traders appear under a personal name: if you use this for marketing, follow UK GDPR and PECR (B2B rules). Not affiliated with the Food Standards Agency.

Part of the **SterlingVerify** UK payments & compliance toolkit. See also: UK Company Check, UK Sanctions Screener, Merchant Compliance Checker, Payments Stack Detector, PSP Status Monitor.

# Actor input Schema

## `searches` (type: `array`):

List of searches. Each has any of: location (town/area), postcode (full or partial, e.g. LS1), name (business name), businessType (e.g. Restaurant/Cafe/Canteen, Takeaway/sandwich shop, Pub/bar/nightclub, Retailers - other, Mobile caterer, Hotel/bed & breakfast/guest house).

## `maxItemsPerSearch` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many establishments per search.

## `maxRating` (type: `integer`):

e.g. 2 to find businesses rated 0-2 (risk review or compliance-service leads). Leave empty for all.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searches": [
    {
      "location": "Leeds",
      "businessType": "Takeaway/sandwich shop"
    }
  ],
  "maxItemsPerSearch": 20
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

All results in the default dataset

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "searches": [
        {
            "location": "Leeds",
            "businessType": "Takeaway/sandwich shop"
        }
    ],
    "maxItemsPerSearch": 20
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("sterlingverify/uk-food-hygiene").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "searches": [{
            "location": "Leeds",
            "businessType": "Takeaway/sandwich shop",
        }],
    "maxItemsPerSearch": 20,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("sterlingverify/uk-food-hygiene").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "searches": [
    {
      "location": "Leeds",
      "businessType": "Takeaway/sandwich shop"
    }
  ],
  "maxItemsPerSearch": 20
}' |
apify call sterlingverify/uk-food-hygiene --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,sterlingverify/uk-food-hygiene"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/N33yxebEU3LeI1ZY6/builds/kfDDaSHGvzMoKqaqa/openapi.json