Food outlets in Scotland are subject to the Food Hygiene Information Scheme (FHIS). Under the scheme, local authorities carry out an inspection of relevant businesses, and provide them with a rating of Pass or Improvement Required. The outlets could alternatively be Awaiting Inspection, Awaiting Publication or they could be Exempt from the rating scheme.

Businesses are asked to display their classification clearly at the front of their premises.

In this study, the information that is held by the Food Standards Agency regarding FHIS ratings has been used to discover the best and worst local authorities in Scotland, for food hygiene in restaurants and cafes, pubs, and takeaways.

Premises that are classified as Awaiting Inspection, Awaiting Publication or Exempt, have been removed from the analysis in order to discover the percentage of businesses with a Pass or Improvement Required rating.

Key Findings

  • The 5 council areas with the highest percentage of Pass ratings for food hygiene in restaurants, cafes, pubs and takeaways:
    1. Orkney Islands (100% of 111 applicable businesses)
    2. South Ayrshire (99.8% of 601 applicable businesses)
    3. Perth & Kinross (97.8% of 406 applicable businesses)
    4. Renfrewshire (96.6% of 593 applicable businesses)
    5. East Ayrshire (96% of 451 applicable businesses)
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  • The 5 council areas with the highest percentage of Improvement Required ratings for food hygiene in restaurants, cafes, pubs and takeaways:
    1. Highland (28.6% of 418 applicable businesses)
    2. City of Edinburgh (28.2% of 2474 applicable businesses)
    3. Moray (26.8% of 286 applicable businesses)
    4. Midlothian (24.3% of 238 applicable businesses)
    5. Aberdeen City (24% of 779 applicable businesses)
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  • Out of the best five council areas, South Ayrshire has the highest number of applicable businesses (businesses that have received a Pass or Improvement Required rating under the scheme). They also rank top for the category of restaurants and cafes, are in the top 5 for pubs, and rank top for takeaways.
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  • The City of Edinburgh has the highest number of applicable businesses out of the worst five council areas. It also ranks the worst in the country for restaurants and cafes, is in the bottom five for pubs and in the bottom five for takeaways.

Food Hygiene Ratings - Scotland - Restaurants, pubs, Takeaways

Scotland Restaurants and Cafes

Out of the 32 local authority areas, City of Edinburgh has the highest proportion of restaurants and cafes with the Improvement Required rating. Of the 1259 restaurants and cafes in the area, more than a quarter require improvement, at 26.5%.

Other areas with a high percentage of poorly rated restaurants include Moray (23.7% of 135 applicable businesses), Shetland Islands (22.8% of 57 applicable businesses), Midlothian (18.3% of 131 applicable businesses), and Highland with 18% of their 323 applicable businesses requiring improvement.

The areas that fared best in their most recent inspections are South Ayrshire and Orkney Islands, both of which have an amazing 100% pass rate for their 350 and 93 applicable establishments (respectively).

Other areas with a high percentage of restaurants that have passed the inspection include East Ayrshire (97.6% of 328 applicable outlets), Perth and Kinross (97.3% of 262 applicable outlets), and Fife (96.3% of 599 applicable outlets).

Scotland Food Hygiene - Restaurants

Scotland Pubs

Highland is the council area with the worst pub ratings. A total of 28.1% of its 32 applicable pubs received the Improvement Required rating at their latest inspection.

Other areas with a high percentage include Moray (26.4% of its 72 relevant pubs), City of Edinburgh (20% of its 539 pubs), Aberdeen City (15.6% of its 199 pubs) and Dundee City (15.6% of its 199 relevant pubs).

West Lothian was one of four local authorities with a 100% pass rate. A total of 84 applicable pubs in the area passed their latest inspections. The other areas were Shetland Islands, the Orkney Islands, and East Renfrewshire. Of an overall total of 27 pubs in the Shetland Islands, 77.78% are Exempt, and 11% Awaiting Inspection, which means that the pass rate only applies to the 3 remaining pubs. In the Orkney Islands, all 11 pubs received the 100% pass rate and in East Renfrewshire, all 12 of its pubs got full marks.

Scotland Food Hygiene - pubs

Scotland Takeaways

The local authority with the highest percentage of takeaways requiring improvement is Midlothian, with a very high 42.9% of its 56 takeaways needing attention.

There were six other areas with over a third of their rated takeaways requiring improvement, including Shetland Islands (41.7% of 12 takeaways); Highland (39.7% of 63 takeaways); Aberdeen City (38.7% of 194 takeaways); City of Edinburgh (38% of 676 takeaways; Scottish Borders (37.9% of 87 takeaways); and South Lanarkshire (35% of 60 relevant takeaways).

On the positive side, 100% of the 103 rated takeaways in South Ayrshire received a pass at their last inspection, and Orkney Islands also have a 100% pass rate, although there are only 7 takeaways in this area.

Other local authorities that fared well in this category were Perth and Kinross (97.7% of 87 relevant takeaways); Renfrewshire (96% of 173 relevant takeaways) and Dumfries and Galloway (94.5% of 91 takeaway businesses).

Scotland Food Hygiene - Takeaways

Below is the raw data that was used to conduct the analysis, taken from the Food Standards Agency website on 19th December 2016.

Restaurants and Cafes in Scotland

Area Total Number of Businesses % Passed % Requiring Improvement % Awaiting Publication % Awaiting Inspection % Exempt
Aberdeen City 387 81.91 17.83 0 0 0.26
Aberdeenshire 133 78.2 12.03 0 6.77 3.01
Angus 183 87.43 5.46 0 7.1 0
Argyll and Bute 292 84.59 7.53 0 1.71 6.16
Clackmannanshire
52 88.46 7.69 0 3.85 0
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles)
74 82.43 12.16 0 0 5.41
Dumfries and Galloway
217 95.39 4.15 0 0.46 0
Dundee City 252 80.56 14.29 0 1.19 3.97
East Ayrshire 393 81.42 2.04 0 0 16.54
East Dunbartonshire
113 88.5 11.5 0 0 0
East Lothian 169 94.08 5.92 0 0 0
East Renfrewshire
84 94.05 5.95 0 0 0
Edinburgh (City of)
1259 73.55 26.45 0 0 0
Falkirk 276 67.03 12.68 0 11.23 9.06
Fife 633 91.15 3.48 0 4.27 1.11
Glasgow City 1500 84 6.47 0 9.53 0
Highland 387 68.48 14.99 0 16.28 0.26
Inverclyde 101 92.08 6.93 0 0.99 0
Midlothian 142 75.35 16.9 0 0 7.75
Moray 137 75.18 23.36 0 1.46 0
North Ayrshire 190 90 9.47 0 0 0.53
North Lanarkshire
312 91.03 8.33 0 0.64 0
Orkney Islands 93 100 0 0 0 0
Perth and Kinross
285 89.47 2.46 0 8.07 0
Renfrewshire 264 94.7 4.17 0 0.38 0.76
Scottish Borders
316 83.23 16.77 0 0 0
Shetland Islands
60 73.33 21.67 0 5 0
South Ayrshire 366 95.63 0 0 0.27 4.1
South Lanarkshire
852 81.22 14.91 0 3.87 0
Stirling 206 88.83 9.22 0 1.94 0
West Dunbartonshire
147 91.16 8.84 0 0 0
West Lothian 190 90 7.89 0 2.11 0

Pubs and Nightclubs in Scotland

Area Total Number of Businesses< % Passed % Requiring Improvement % Awaiting Publication % Awaiting Inspection % Exempt
Aberdeen City 199 84.42 15.58 0 0 0
Aberdeenshire 165 76.97 10.91 0 5.45 6.67
Angus 139 82.01 4.32 0 13.67 0
Argyll and Bute 73 83.56 2.74 0 4.11 9.59
Clackmannanshire
53 83.02 15.09 0 1.89 0
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles)
19 78.95 5.26 0 15.79 0
Dumfries and Galloway
114 93.86 2.63 0 3.51 0
Dundee City 201 83.58 15.42 0 0 1
East Ayrshire 51 68.63 1.96 0 0 29.41
East Dunbartonshire
52 92.31 7.69 0 0 0
East Lothian 106 95.28 4.72 0 0 0
East Renfrewshire
12 100 0 0 0 0
Edinburgh (City of)
539 79.96 20.04 0 0 0
Falkirk 123 66.67 8.94 0 5.69 18.7
Fife 430 92.56 2.33 0 0.93 4.19
Glasgow City 390 88.46 8.21 0 3.33 0
Highland 40 57.5 22.5 0 15 5
Inverclyde 75 90.67 8 0 1.33 0
Midlothian 58 77.59 10.34 0 0 12.07
Moray 81 65.43 23.46 0 11.11 0
North Ayrshire 135 94.81 4.44 0 0 0.74
North Lanarkshire
246 95.93 3.25 0 0.81 0
Orkney Islands 11 100 0 0 0 0
Perth and Kinross
59 94.92 1.69 0 3.39 0
Renfrewshire 165 94.55 1.82 0 0 3.64
Scottish Borders
167 92.22 7.19 0 0 0.6
Shetland Islands
27 11.11 0 0 11.11 77.78
South Ayrshire 149 98.66 0.67 0 0.67 0
South Lanarkshire
255 88.24 10.59 0 1.18 0
Stirling 118 92.37 6.78 0 0.85 0
West Dunbartonshire
57 94.74 5.26 0 0 0
West Lothian 87 96.55 0 0 3.45 0

Takeaways in Scotland

Area Total Number of Businesses % Passed % Requiring Improvement % Awaiting Publication % Awaiting Inspection % Exempt
Aberdeen City 194 61.34 38.66 0 0 0
Aberdeenshire 134 67.16 28.36 0 4.48 0
Angus 87 80.46 14.94 0 4.6 0
Argyll and Bute 60 81.67 13.33 0 3.33 1.67
Clackmannanshire
49 81.63 16.33 0 2.04 0
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles)
12 91.67 8.33 0 0 0
Dumfries and Galloway
91 94.51 5.49 0 0 0
Dundee City 192 75 23.44 0 1.56 0
East Ayrshire 87 93.1 6.9 0 0 0
East Dunbartonshire
74 87.84 12.16 0 0 0
East Lothian 58 93.1 6.9 0 0 0
East Renfrewshire
60 86.67 13.33 0 0 0
Edinburgh (City of)
676 61.98 38.02 0 0 0
Falkirk 130 80 13.85 0 5.38 0.77
Fife 324 88.27 8.95 0 2.78 0
Glasgow City 853 71.04 16.76 0 12.19 0
Highland 73 52.05 34.25 0 13.7 0
Inverclyde 69 76.81 23.19 0 0 0
Midlothian 56 57.14 42.86 0 0 0
Moray 83 66.27 28.92 0 4.82 0
North Ayrshire 137 80.29 18.98 0 0.73 0
North Lanarkshire
370 82.16 16.76 0 1.08 0
Orkney Islands 7 100 0 0 0 0
Perth and Kinross
93 91.4 2.15 0 6.45 0
Renfrewshire 175 94.86 4 0 0.57 0.57
Scottish Borders
87 62.07 37.93 0 0 0
Shetland Islands
12 58.33 41.67 0 0 0
South Ayrshire 105 98.1 0 0 0.95 0.95
South Lanarkshire
68 57.35 30.88 0 11.76 0
Stirling 71 77.46 15.49 0 7.04 0
West Dunbartonshire
93 86.02 13.98 0 0 0
West Lothian 144 84.03 13.19 0 2.78 0