Norwich Food Hygiene: Lowest Five-Star Share in Norfolk

Two in three Norwich food businesses with a hygiene rating hold the top score of five. That is the lowest share of any council area in Norfolk, according to the Food Standards Agency’s register.

The gap is not made up of bad ratings. Norwich has no business rated zero, and only five rated one. What sets the city apart is the number of businesses sitting on a four or a three, one or two steps below the top.

We downloaded the Food Standards Agency register for Norwich and the six other Norfolk districts on 1 October 2026, and counted every current rating from zero to five.

Norwich’s ratings, in full

The register lists 1,583 Norwich food businesses. Of those, 1,362 have a rating. Another 186 are awaiting their first inspection and 35 are exempt.

How Norwich compares with the rest of Norfolk

Every other Norfolk district has a five-star share above 70%. Five of them are above 84%.

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• King’s Lynn and West Norfolk: 89.3%
• Broadland: 88.3%
• Breckland: 87.2%
• North Norfolk: 86.6%
• South Norfolk: 84.3%
• Great Yarmouth: 71.9%
• Norwich: 66.4%

The city also trails the two nearest comparable cities. In Cambridge 77.9% of rated businesses hold a five, and in Ipswich 94.7% do.

The bottom of the table tells a different story. Norwich has 24 businesses rated two or below, which is 1.8% of those rated. That is the same share as South Norfolk. Great Yarmouth has 62 businesses rated two or below, or 6.0%, and five of them are rated zero.

Where Norwich stands out is the middle. 22.8% of its rated businesses are on a four, against between 6.9% and 10.3% in the five rural districts and 15.5% in Great Yarmouth. Another 9.0% are on a three.

It is not old ratings

A low share could in theory come from ratings that are years out of date. That is not the case here. Most current Norwich ratings come from inspections in 2025 or 2026.

We counted only inspections carried out between 1 October 2025 and 31 August 2026. Norwich had 473 in that time, and 58.8% ended in a five. That is lower than the city’s overall share, not higher.

The same window for the neighbours:

• Broadland: 82.4% of 415 inspections ended in a five
• South Norfolk: 79.9% of 453
• Great Yarmouth: 65.2% of 488
• Cambridge: 69.4% of 409
• Ipswich: 91.3% of 263

We left out September on purpose. A five is published as soon as the council uploads it, but a rating of zero to four is held back for three to five weeks, to give the business time to appeal, according to the Food Standards Agency’s guidance for businesses. So far 27 Norwich inspections from September are on the register and 26 of them are fives. That figure will fall as the lower ratings come through.

What holds Norwich businesses back

An inspector scores three things: how hygienically food is handled, the physical condition of the premises, and how the business manages food safety. On each, a lower score is better.

We looked at the 180 Norwich businesses rated three or four between October 2025 and August 2026 whose scores are on the register. For each one, we noted which of the three scores was the worst, counting ties for both.

• Confidence in management was the worst, or joint worst, at 118 of them.
• Structure, meaning the building, cleaning and layout, at 99.
• Hygiene, meaning how food is handled on the day, at 47.

In other words, most Norwich businesses that miss out on a five do so on paperwork, training and the state of the building, more than on how they handle food.

Takeaways have the lowest share of fives. Of 177 rated takeaways and sandwich shops, 50.3% hold a five. Restaurants, cafes and canteens are at 63.7% of 405, pubs and bars at 65.1% of 149, and schools and colleges at 75.0% of 72.

The five businesses rated one

No Norwich business is rated zero. These five are rated one, “major improvement necessary”, according to the register. The date is the day of the inspection.

A rating reflects what the inspector found on the day. A business can ask for a re-inspection once it has made improvements, and it can publish a written right to reply on the register at any time before its next inspection. Any business named here that has done either is welcome to tell us at hello@norwichtimes.co.uk.

What it means for you

• Check before you order. Every rating, with its inspection date, is on the Food Standards Agency’s ratings site. Search by name or postcode.
• A four is a good rating. It means the business is good on the inspector’s measure, and in Norwich more than one in five businesses holds one. Treat a two or below as the warning sign, and in Norwich that is fewer than one in fifty.
• A new business may have no rating yet. 186 Norwich businesses are awaiting their first inspection, more than any other Norfolk district.
• If something worries you, report it to Norwich City Council’s environmental health team, which carries out the inspections in the city.

For the rest of what the city council does and charges, see our guides to Norwich bin collection days and Norwich council tax bands.

How we did this

We downloaded the full register for each council area from the Food Standards Agency’s open data on 1 October 2026. We counted current ratings from zero to five only. Businesses awaiting inspection and exempt premises are left out of every percentage. The “worst score” analysis uses the three published scores, where a higher number means more improvement needed.

Sources

• Food Standards Agency food hygiene ratings, full registers for Norwich, Broadland, South Norfolk, Breckland, Great Yarmouth, North Norfolk, King’s Lynn and West Norfolk, Cambridge and Ipswich, downloaded 1 October 2026, for every count, share and rating in this story.
• Food Hygiene Rating Scheme guidance for businesses, Food Standards Agency, for the three areas inspected, the publication delay for ratings below five, the 21-day appeal window, the right to reply and re-inspection requests.