Medway Food Hygiene: No Zero Ratings, 21 Score One

Not a single food business in Medway currently holds a zero food hygiene rating.

We pulled the whole Medway register from the Food Standards Agency on 7 September 2026. It lists 2,134 food businesses, of which 1,944 carry a rating from 0 to 5. The count at zero, the band the FSA describes as “urgent improvement is necessary”, is nil.

Four out of five hold the top mark. 1,551 businesses, or 79.8%, have a 5.

What the number on the door covers

Ratings are given by Medway Council’s environmental health officers and published by the FSA. They cover three things: how hygienically food is handled, the condition of the premises, and how the business manages and documents food safety.

The council is explicit that the rating “reflects the conditions found at the time of the last inspection and does not reflect the quality of food or the standards of service the business provides”. It is a snapshot of one visit, not a review.

Twenty-one on a one, and fourteen of them are shops

The lowest rating in use across Medway is a 1, meaning “major improvement is necessary”. Twenty-one businesses hold one.

The pattern in that list is not the one most people would guess. Fourteen of the 21 are shops, recorded by the FSA as “retailers, other”: convenience stores, newsagents, off-licences and a cash and carry. Only one is a takeaway.

Across the district as a whole, shops score worse than the places people worry about:

Takeaways are the least likely to hold a 5, but shops are more than four times as likely to hold a 1 or a 2.

Every one of the 21 failed on the same thing

The FSA publishes the three component scores behind each rating. Lower is better.

All 21 of Medway’s one-rated businesses scored 20 for confidence in management. No other business anywhere on Medway’s register scores that badly on management: the next worst score recorded in the district is 10, held by 222 businesses.

Their scores on the other two elements are nothing like as bad:

• on hygienic food handling, none of the 21 scored worse than 15, and one scored a clean 0
• on the physical condition of the premises, none scored worse than 15, and two scored a clean 0

In other words, a Medway 1 is almost always a failure of records, training and food safety management, not a filthy kitchen. That is worth knowing before reading the number on a door as a verdict on the state of the place.

The 21 businesses, as the register records them

Every entry below is taken from the FSA register on 7 September 2026, with the date of the inspection that produced it. Ratings can be appealed, businesses have a right to reply, and a business can pay for a re-inspection at any time. Details of all three are below.

A further 10 businesses hold a 2. 75 hold a 3 and 287 hold a 4.

Seven of those ratings are over a year old

A food hygiene rating stands until the next inspection. Seven of the 21 were given more than a year ago, and the oldest, at Fairway Food & Wine in Rochester, dates from 29 August 2024.

That is not necessarily the council dragging its feet. A business that has made improvements does not have to wait for the next routine visit: it can ask for a re-inspection. But in Medway that costs £227.90 every time, according to the council’s rescore page, and the outcome is not guaranteed. The council warns the score “could stay the same, go up, or go down”, and the visit is unannounced, within three months of payment.

For a corner shop, £227.90 is a real barrier to shifting a 1.

How Medway compares with its future partners

Medway becomes part of the new North Kent Council with Dartford and Gravesham on 1 April 2028. On the same FSA data, pulled the same day:

Medway sits between the two. Dartford has the only zero-rated business of the three. What happens to Medway’s food safety team when the three merge has not been set out; our guide to North Kent Council covers what has been decided so far.

What it means for you

• Check before you buy, not after. Every rating is free to look up by name or postcode on the FSA’s rating search.
• A rating is dated. Look at the inspection date next to it. Seven of Medway’s lowest-rated businesses were last inspected more than a year ago, and the place may have changed either way since.
• 145 Medway businesses have no rating yet because they are awaiting their first inspection, and 43 are exempt. An absent rating is not a bad rating.
• Report a problem to the council, not to us. Complaints about a food business in Medway go to Medway Council’s food safety team, and an officer can inspect at any reasonable hour without an appointment.
• Looking for a local trader or shop? Our Medway business directory lists firms across the district by trade and town.
• If you run one of these businesses: you can appeal within 21 days of being given the rating, using the council’s appeal form. The council confirms receipt within seven days and gives an outcome within 21. You can also submit a right to reply at any time before your next inspection, and it is published next to your rating.

Sources

• Food Standards Agency, food hygiene rating data for Medway, open data API, retrieved 7 September 2026. Comparison figures for Dartford and Gravesham retrieved the same day.
• Food Standards Agency, rating search
• Medway Council, food hygiene ratings
• Medway Council, request a food hygiene rescore
• Medway Council, appeal a food hygiene rating
• GOV.UK, Food Hygiene Rating Scheme: guidance for businesses, updated 30 June 2026