canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/food.gov.uk/food-gov-uk

# Food Hygiene Rating Scheme API

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for Food Hygiene Rating Scheme API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. The Food Standards Agency runs the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS), which scores food businesses across the UK on hygiene standards. The API exposes lookup endpoints for establishments, ratings, business types, regions, local authorities, countries, scheme types, score descriptors, and sort options. It is open and unauthenticated.

## For AI agents

Look up UK food hygiene ratings, search establishments by name or location, and resolve business type, region, and authority reference data.

## Scope

Does not handle restaurant reviews, reservations, or food allergen data - use for UK food hygiene ratings and FHRS reference data only.

## Capabilities

- Search establishments by name, address, business type, or local authority
- Retrieve a single establishment's hygiene rating and inspection details
- List business types used by the FHRS classification scheme
- Look up local authorities that issue food hygiene ratings
- Resolve regions and countries used in the rating scheme
- Read score descriptors that explain what each rating component means
- Page through reference data using basic and full variants of each endpoint

## Use cases

### Embed Food Hygiene Ratings on a Listings Site

Pull each venue's FHRS rating via /Establishments and display it on a restaurant listings or review site. The endpoint accepts filters by name, business type, local authority, and region so you can match venues against your own catalogue. The data is refreshed by local authorities and is open to use under FSA terms.

Example prompt: Search /Establishments for venues with name 'The Ivy' in local authority 'Westminster' and return each match's hygiene rating.

### Compliance Monitoring Across a Chain

Track ratings for every site in a multi-location food business by paging through /Establishments filtered by business name and local authority. Useful for operations teams who need a single dashboard of FHRS scores across their estate. Each record includes the rating value, rating date, and the inspecting authority.

Example prompt: List establishments with business name matching 'Pret A Manger' across all local authorities and return the count of sites at each rating value.

### Reference Data Lookup

Use endpoints like /BusinessTypes, /Authorities, /Regions, /Countries, /Ratings, /SchemeTypes, and /ScoreDescriptors to populate dropdowns, validate user input, or enrich establishment records with human-readable labels. Each endpoint supports paged 'basic' and full variants, so you can choose between lightweight metadata and detailed records.

Example prompt: Call GET `/BusinessTypes/basic` and return the IDs and names of all FHRS business types.

### AI Agent Lookup via Jentic

Agents use Jentic's intent search to find FHRS operations, load the schema for the establishment search endpoint, and run lookups without holding any credentials (the API is open). This is the recommended pattern for assistants that answer 'is this restaurant safe?' style questions in chat or voice channels.

Example prompt: Use Jentic to search 'look up a UK food hygiene rating', load the GET /Establishments schema, and return the latest rating for the restaurant name and postcode the user provided.

## Key endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| GET | `/Establishments` | Search establishments by name, location, or business type |
| GET | `/Authorities` | List local authorities that issue ratings |
| GET | `/BusinessTypes` | List FHRS business types |
| GET | `/Regions` | List UK regions |
| GET | `/Ratings` | List rating values |
| GET | `/SchemeTypes` | List rating scheme types (FHRS, FHIS) |
| GET | `/ScoreDescriptors` | Read score descriptor text |

## Key resources

- **Establishments** — Search and retrieve food businesses with their FHRS ratings.
- **Authorities** — List local authorities that issue ratings.
- **BusinessTypes** — List FHRS business type classifications.
- **Regions** — List UK regions used in the rating scheme.
- **Countries** — List countries covered by the scheme.
- **Ratings** — List rating values and their meanings.
- **SchemeTypes** — List rating scheme types (e.g. FHRS, FHIS for Scotland).
- **ScoreDescriptors** — Read text descriptions of rating components.
- **SortOptions** — List sort options available on establishment search.

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme API is unauthenticated, so wiring it by hand still means building your own retry, paging, and error handling around its establishment and reference-data endpoints. Through Jentic you install once, import it from the API Directory, and your agent calls it with that handling already in place alongside your other tools.
- **Permission scoping:** The FHRS API is read-only over establishment and reference data and carries its filters as query parameters rather than in the URL path, so scoping is operations-only: you limit the agent to the lookups it needs, such as searching Establishments or reading Ratings, and leave out the reference-data endpoints it does not use. Every operation the agent can run is one you chose.
- **Credential handling:** The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme API needs no credential, so there is no secret for your Jentic One instance to store or inject. There is no key to keep out of the agent's prompt, logs, or context because none exists.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'look up a UK food hygiene rating', and Jentic returns the GET /Establishments operation with its query parameter schema so the agent supplies business name and authority without browsing the FSA docs.

## Related APIs

- **Yelp Fusion API** — Restaurant search and reviews to pair with FHRS hygiene ratings.
- **Bing Search API** — Web and place search to resolve venue names before looking up FHRS ratings.
- **Companies House API** — UK company registry data that pairs with FHRS for due-diligence on food businesses.

## FAQ

### Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for Food Hygiene Rating Scheme API?

The Food Standards Agency publishes documentation but not a maintained OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call Food Hygiene Rating Scheme API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started with Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.

### What authentication does the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme API use?

The FHRS API is open and does not require authentication. The OpenAPI spec lists no security schemes. Jentic still routes the call through its execution layer for observability, but no credential is needed.

### Can I search establishments by postcode with the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme API?

Yes, GET /Establishments accepts filters including business name, local authority, and address fields, and the response contains each establishment's address and rating. Use the local authority and business type filters together for tighter location-based searches.

### What are the rate limits for the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme API?

The OpenAPI spec does not declare explicit rate limits. The FSA asks consumers to be reasonable - page through results with the basic/{pageNumber}/{pageSize} variants rather than pulling the full dataset at once.

### How do I look up a single restaurant's hygiene rating through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'look up a UK food hygiene rating', load the GET /Establishments schema, and execute with the business name and local authority. The response includes the FHRS rating value and the rating date.

### Does the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme API cover Scotland?

Yes, the /SchemeTypes endpoint distinguishes between FHRS (England, Wales, Northern Ireland) and FHIS (Scotland), and both are returned by /Establishments. Filter by scheme type if you only want one or the other.

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme API?

Yes. Jentic One runs self-hosted, so your own rules decide which of the FHRS operations the agent may call. Because this API is read-only and carries its filters as query parameters, scoping is operations-only: you can allow the agent to search Establishments and read Ratings while leaving out reference-data lookups such as Authorities, BusinessTypes, Regions, or ScoreDescriptors that it does not need. Every operation the agent can run is one you chose, and since the API needs no credential there is no key for the agent to hold.