How to Get a Level 5 Food Hygiene Rating (UK Guide for 2025)

Achieving a Level 5 Food Hygiene Rating is one of the biggest trust signals for customers, inspectors, and delivery platforms. Whether you run a café, restaurant, pub, care home, dark kitchen, or bakery, this guide walks you through exactly how to secure and keep that perfect score — using modern digital tools like CCDFSM to stay inspection-ready every single day.

What Inspectors Are REALLY Looking For

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) grades businesses on three key areas:

• Food handling – Preparation, cooking, cooling, reheating, storage.
• Cleanliness & structure – Layout, handwashing, pest control, maintenance.
• Management & record-keeping – HACCP, logs, training, corrective actions.

Most businesses fail on the last category. Poor documentation, missing logs, and inconsistent HACCP processes are the #1 cause of losing a Level 5 rating.

Step 1: Maintain a Solid HACCP / CCDFSM System

Traditional paper HACCP plans are outdated and easily lost. CompliChef’s CCDFSM (CompliChef Digital Food Safety Management) replaces them with:

• Automatic temperature logs (fridge, freezer, food probe)
• Daily opening & closing checklists
• Cleaning schedules & reminders
• Digital staff training records
• Instant EHO inspection-mode reports

Inspectors love digital systems because data is timestamped, staff-verified, and impossible to "redo" on the spot — boosting your reliability score.

Step 2: Keep Your Kitchen Clean, Organised & Pest-Free

• Daily cleaning logs completed properly
• Colour-coded equipment
• Deep cleans recorded weekly/monthly
• No signs of pests (droppings, gnaw marks, flies)
• Correct waste management

All cleaning tasks should be tracked using a digital audit trail.

Step 3: Control Temperatures Correctly

• Fridges: 0–5°C
• Freezers: -18°C or below
• Hot holding: 63°C+
• Cooling from 63°C → 8°C within 90 minutes

CompliChef automatically flags unsafe temperatures before they become violations.

Step 4: Proper Labelling & Food Rotation

Incorrect or missing labels are one of the quickest ways to fail an inspection.

• Use By dates must be followed strictly
• Best Before for quality only
• Opened/Prepared On labels for fresh items
• Defrosted On labels must show a 24-hour limit

CCDFSM automatically assigns the correct date to each item using QR-coded labels.

Step 5: Train Your Staff (And Keep Proof!)

• Food Hygiene Level 2 for food handlers
• Allergen training
• Cleaning & equipment training
• Inductions for new staff

With CompliChef, training is digital, trackable, and certificates are stored automatically.

Step 6: Stay Inspection-Ready Every Day

Inspectors don’t give notice — your kitchen must always be ready.

• Make sure logs are consistently completed
• Ensure corrective actions are recorded
• Use CompliChef’s ‘Inspection Mode’ to show everything instantly

Step 7: Fix Issues Immediately

A Level 5 business doesn’t hide mistakes — it fixes them and records proof.

Why CompliChef Helps You Achieve Level 5 Faster

• 100% digital HACCP system
• Automatic logs with timestamps
• Smart alerts before anything becomes a violation
• Digital staff training built-in
• Pest, cleaning, probe, diary, and delivery checks in one place
• EHO-ready reporting with zero paperwork

Ready to Earn Your Level 5 Rating?

Join hundreds of UK kitchens using CompliChef every day to stay compliant, reduce waste, and impress inspectors.