Pest Control And Your Food Hygiene Rating
The treatment is half of it. The paperwork is the half that gets scored.
What is being scored
Three Things, And Pests Touch All Of Them
A food hygiene rating is made up of hygiene practices, the condition of the structure, and confidence in management - and that third element is where pest control does most of its damage or most of its good.
An officer finding evidence of pests marks it against hygiene and structure. An officer finding that you did not know, had no monitoring and cannot produce a record marks it against confidence in management, and that is the component that drags a rating furthest.
Which is why a business with a documented programme and a live issue often scores better than one with no issue and no paperwork.
What an officer looks for
The Places They Actually Check
- Behind and under equipment - fridges, freezers, prep benches, the gap behind the oven.
- Dry goods storage - floor-standing sacks, open containers, the back of the shelf.
- The waste area - lids, surface, distance from the door, collection frequency.
- Drainage and gullies - covers, traps, condition.
- Doors and openings - brush seals, fly screens, whether the back door stands open in summer.
- Your records - and whether the actions in them were actually done.
On a Kent parade or high street, add the shared yard. A great many problems in this county's food businesses originate in a bin area used by four units and owned by none of them.
What the records should show
A Trail, Not A Certificate
A contract certificate on the wall proves you pay someone. What an officer wants is evidence that something is being looked at and acted on.
That means, for each visit: the date, what was inspected, what was found, what was applied, what was recommended, and - the part everybody forgets - what you did about the recommendations. An outstanding recommendation repeated across four visits is worse than the original finding.
We provide the report side of that as standard on commercial work. The column showing what you did is yours, and it is the one that earns the marks.
If something is found during an inspection
What To Do In The Next Hour
Do not argue, and do not minimise it. Record what was said, get a pest control visit booked the same day if you can, and write down what you are doing about it while it is happening.
Then deal with the cause rather than the sighting. An officer coming back to find the droppings cleaned and the gap still open is a worse outcome than the first visit.
You can request a re-rating visit once the issues are fixed, and the evidence you hand over at that point is the record of what you did and when. A dated report showing finding, action and completion is exactly that.
Common Questions
Does having pests automatically mean a low rating?
No. What hurts most is having no monitoring and no records - that goes against confidence in management, which is the heaviest component.
Do we need a contract, or will one-off visits do?
It depends on the premises and the risk. There is a separate article that sets out honestly when a contract is worth it and when it is not.
The bin area is shared and nobody deals with it.
Get it in writing. A dated finding naming the waste area as the source is what gets a landlord or the other units to act.
Going further
Advice Worth Reading First
What Happens On A First Visit
Nobody enjoys booking this. Here is exactly what it involves, so there are no surprises on the day.
Read more ›What It Costs, And What Changes It
One published price, and an honest account of why everything else is quoted instead of listed.
Read more ›Pests In A Rented Home: Who Is Responsible?
General information rather than legal advice, and the short answer is that it usually turns on how they got in.
Read more ›Preparing For A Treatment
Some of this genuinely changes the result. Some of it just saves time. Both are worth doing.
Read more ›Which Trade Does What
We would rather tell you it is somebody else’s job than take the money and leave you with it.
Read more ›One-Off Treatment Or A Contract?
Contracts suit some premises and are a waste of money for others. Here is the honest test.
Read more ›Wildlife Law, And What Cannot Be Treated
Some of the things people ring about are protected, and a firm that offers to deal with them anyway is offering to break the law on your behalf.
Read more ›Pests When Buying Or Selling A House
It comes up more often than people expect, usually at the worst possible moment in the chain.
Read more ›Pest Control In A Flat Or A Block
The hardest part is rarely the pest. It is that the part of the building causing it is not yours.
Read more ›Get A Free Quote
Tell us your postcode and what you are seeing. We will come back with a time and a fixed price before anything is booked.
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