Food hygiene inspections
Environmental health officers (EHOs) have a right to enter and inspect food premises without having to make an appointment or giving advanced notice.
Food Hygiene Rating Scheme - help for businesses
Information for businesses about inspections, revisits and appeals
We run the national food hygiene ratings schemes in partnership with the Food Standards Agency. This is one part of our Food business inspection programme.
The scheme allows consumers to make informed choices about the places where they eat out or shop for food, and encourages businesses to improve their hygiene standards. You can find out more about how the ratings are given on the Food Standards Agency website
If you have concerns over your rating, you can make an appeal, use your right to reply, make a request to revisit or request for early publication of a rating. More information about these safeguards is provided on the FSA's website.
Right to Appeals
If you feel your rating is wrong or unfair you should talk to the officer that inspected your food business in the first instance.
If you still think the rating is unfair or wrong, you can appeal in writing. To appeal, the owner or manager of the business must write to the Lead Officer for Food at Ehealth.ldc@lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk within 21 days (this includes weekends and public holidays) of being told what your rating is.
Food hygiene appeal form (Word doc, 201 KB)
If you make an appeal FSA's website will show that your food hygiene rating is 'awaiting publication'. The Lead Officer will review your case. The officer that gave the rating will not consider your appeal. You will be notified of the result of the appeal within 21 days from the date that the appeal was received by us. Once you have been notified of the result of your appeal, your rating will be published online at FSA Ratings.
You can challenge the local authority's decision by judicial review. Your rating will still be published at FSA Ratings.
Right to reply
Your 'right to reply' lets you explain to your customers any actions you have taken to improve hygiene standards at your premises since your inspection, or to say if there were unusual circumstances at the time of the inspection that might have affected your rating. It is not an opportunity to complain or criticise the food hygiene rating scheme or your food safety officer.
You can submit a 'right to reply' by completing the right to reply form (below), sending an email to Ehealth.ldc@lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk or sending a letter to:
Eastbourne Borough Council
1 Grove Road
Eastbourne
BN21 4TW
There is no deadline for this, so you can submit your 'right to reply' at any time up until your next inspection.
Replies are vetted by the council before being published alongside the business's hygiene rating on the Food Standards Agency website.
FHRS Right to reply (Word doc, 91 KB)
It will then be published online together with your hygiene rating at FSA Ratings. The 'right to reply' will remain on the website until you are given a new rating.
Request a revisit
Your business will receive a new food hygiene rating each time we conduct a routine inspection of your premises. How often we do routine inspections depends on the risk your business poses to public health. The greater the risk, the more often we will inspect your business.
After you receive a poor food hygiene score and if you make the necessary improvements, you can ask for a re-rating visit. The revisit must be before the next scheduled inspection. You must make sure that you take action to address any food hygiene issues from previous inspections. You can discuss anything you are unsure about with the food safety officer. You can also ask them for more help on how to make improvements.
During the re-visit the officer will be looking at standards generally - not just at the specific areas you have been working to improve - so your hygiene rating could well go up, down or remain the same.
To request a re-visit, complete the revisit request form (below), send an email to Ehealth.ldc@lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk or send a letter to:
Eastbourne Borough Council
1 Grove Road
Eastbourne
BN21 4TW
You will need to explain in detail what you have done to deal with the issues from your last inspection, and include supporting evidence such as receipts, pest control reports or photos to show what improvement work has been done. We may refuse your request if you do not give us enough information and evidence.
If we refuse your request, we will tell you why. We will also tell you the action you need to take or evidence you need to give us before we can approve your request.
There is no deadline to request a re-rating Inspection. You can ask any time after you have made the necessary improvements. Please email the completed form together with the supporting evidence (we cannot accept zip files) to Ehealth.ldc@lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk
Cost
There is a fee of £185 for a re-rating inspection
The re-visit will be carried out within three months of the receipt of your payment of the fee.
At the revisit, the food safety officer will assess the standards of hygiene at your premises and you will be told in writing within 14 days what your new food hygiene rating is which will be published on the FSA's website up to 36 days after the date of the rescore visit.
Food Hygiene Rating revisit form (Word doc, 385 KB)
Request for early publication of rating
Ratings of '5 - very good' will be published as soon as the information is uploaded. Ratings of 0 - 4 will be published 36 days after the date of inspection/rescore visit to allow for an appeal to be submitted.
The business owner or manager can waive their right to appeal and request that a rating is published before the end of the appeal period. This request must be made in writing to us. You can use the early publication of rating form (below), email us at Ehealth.ldc@lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk. or you can send a letter to:
Eastbourne Borough Council
1 Grove Road
Eastbourne
BN21 4TW
We will review the request and usually publish the rating early.
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