UK Food Hygiene Ratings Scraper

UK Food Hygiene Ratings Scraper

Scrape UK food hygiene ratings for any business, local authority, or rating band, up to a million per run. Every establishment comes with its rating, inspection date, address, and business type. No API key. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

The Food Standards Agency publishes hygiene ratings for every registered food business in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland, but the official API needs registration and rate limits. This Actor reads the public ratings feed directly, filtered by business name, local authority, business type, or rating, and returns each match in one fixed schema.

Who uses it	What they scrape Food Standards Agency for
Food safety consultants	Audit a client's estate or a whole council area for failing ratings.
Market researchers	Map the food business landscape by rating band or business type.
Local authorities	Monitor ratings across neighbouring councils for benchmarking.
Journalists	Find stories about poor hygiene in a specific area or chain.
App developers	Build a consumer-facing ratings lookup without the official API.

What it does

This Actor collects UK food hygiene ratings from the Food Standards Agency and returns each establishment as a flat row with its rating, address, and business details.

• 🔍 Business name filter: partial match on the trading name, so 'Tesco' returns every Tesco store.
• 🏛️ Local authority filter: pick any of the 400+ UK councils, or scan without one.
• 🍽️ Business type filter: restaurants, takeaways, pubs, supermarkets, schools, and more.
• ⭐ Rating filter: 0 to 5 for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, or Pass / Improvement Required for Scotland.
• 📦 Bulk export: collect up to a million establishments per run and download as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with Food Standards Agency data

📋 Audit a chain's hygiene compliance.

A food safety consultant enters the chain's name and gets every outlet with its current rating, then flags the ones below 3 for a follow-up visit.

🗺️ Map a council's risk profile.

A local authority officer selects their council and exports all establishments, then sorts by rating to prioritise inspections.

📰 Find a story in the data.

A journalist filters for rating 0 or 1 in a major city and cross-references the business names with recent complaints.

📱 Power a consumer app.

A developer scrapes the full dataset for a region and loads it into a mobile app that shows ratings on a map.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API key	Reads the public FSA ratings feed directly, no registration or rate limits.
One fixed schema	Every row has the same fields, so you can merge runs without cleaning.
All four nations	Covers England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland, including Scottish Pass / Improvement Required ratings.
Filter before you pay	Filters run on the source side, so you only consume results that match.

How it compares

No other Store actor targets Food Standards Agency the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	UK Food Hygiene Ratings Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When Food Standards Agency changes	Maintained for you	You fix it	You re-learn the page
Proxies, retries, anti-bot	Built in	Your problem	Browser only
Output	Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export	Whatever you build	Copy-paste
Cost	Pay per result	Engineering time	Analyst hours

Configure the run

Drive the Actor from a business name, local authority, business type, or hygiene rating, alone or together, and filters run as each establishment is read so only matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
  "maxItems": 10,
  "localAuthorityId": "any",
  "businessTypeId": "any",
  "ratingKey": "any"
}

A larger pull:

{
  "maxItems": 200,
  "localAuthorityId": "any",
  "businessTypeId": "any",
  "ratingKey": "any"
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.01867 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$1.87
1,000 results	$18.67
10,000 results	$186.70

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the UK Food Hygiene Ratings Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to Food Standards Agency through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/fsa-uk-food-hygiene-ratings-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check that your filters are not too restrictive. The source requires at least one filter for large queries, so try a broader business name or set Local Authority to 'Any'.

Why did the run stop before reaching maxItems?

The FSA feed may cap the number of results for very broad queries. Add a business name or business type filter to get more targeted results.

Why are Scottish ratings different?

Scotland uses Pass / Improvement Required instead of 0 to 5. Use the Scottish rating options in the Hygiene Rating filter to match those establishments.

Can I get the inspection date?

Yes, the dataset includes the inspection date for each establishment. If it is missing, the FSA may not have published it yet.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Does this cover Scotland?	Yes. Scottish ratings use Pass, Improvement Required, Awaiting Inspection, or Exempt instead of the 0 to 5 scale, and the rating filter includes those options.
Can I filter by business name?	Yes, the Business Name input does a partial match on the source, so 'Pizza' returns every business with that word in its name.
Do I need an API key from the Food Standards Agency?	No. This Actor reads the public ratings feed directly, so there is no registration or key to manage.
What is the maximum number of results?	You can set maxItems up to 1,000,000 per run. The source may cap very broad queries, so use filters to narrow the result set.
Can I get results for a specific local authority?	Yes, the Local Authority input lists every council in the UK. Pick one to restrict results to that area.
What business types are available?	The Business Type filter includes restaurants, takeaways, pubs, supermarkets, schools, hospitals, manufacturers, and more.
How do I filter by hygiene rating?	Use the Hygiene Rating input. For England, Wales, and Northern Ireland choose 0 to 5. For Scotland choose Pass or Improvement Required.
What format is the data exported in?	You can download the dataset as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the Apify run page.
Does the Actor return historical ratings?	No, it returns the current rating for each establishment as published by the FSA.
Can I run this on a schedule?	Yes, you can set up a recurring run in Apify to refresh the data daily, weekly, or monthly.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Food Standards Agency. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.