How ratings work: methodology
Last updated: September 19, 2026
Inspect My Chef™ shows each health authority’s own rating, and nothing else. We do not convert ratings into a common score, and we do not compare a North Carolina “A” with a U.K. “5” — they measure different things under different rules.
Every rating appears with its inspection date and a credit to the agency that issued it.
The principle
We never modify, summarize, or invent inspection findings. What you see is what the inspecting authority published. Restaurants that disagree with a rating must take that up with the issuing health agency — Inspect My Chef is a messenger, not a regulator.
Earlier versions of this page described a “Universal score” that translated every system onto one 0–100 scale. We retired it in September 2026: it made different systems look comparable when they are not.
What a badge shows
The badge carries the authority’s own grade — a letter in North Carolina, the score in Alabama, a number from 0 to 5 in the U.K. — and the line beside it carries the rest of the official reading: the exact points, the state’s band name, or the Food Standards Agency’s wording.
Colour is ours; the rating never is.Each authority’s tiers map onto five colour steps, from its best tier to its worst, so you can scan a list quickly. A colour is never shown as a grade. When a list mixes places from different authorities — your Favorites, for example — “best first” sorts by colour step, then by position on each authority’s own scale.
Rating systems by place
The three rating systems in the app today, exactly as their authorities define them.
Showing all 3 jurisdictions
Example queries
Click any query to run it
| Query | Behavior |
|---|---|
| State code → Charlotte, Raleigh and Gastonia | |
| State code → Birmingham (Jefferson County) | |
| Country code → London and Brighton & Hove | |
| City name → its rating system | |
| Rating term → systems that use it |
North Carolina — Charlotte, Raleigh, Gastonia
Sanitation score (0–100, half-point deductions) with an A / B / C grade card
| Rating | What it means |
|---|---|
| A · 90–100 | Grade card A. The badge shows the letter and the exact score sits beside it — for example “A · 96.5 pts”. |
| B · 80–89.5 | Grade card B, with the exact score beside it. |
| C · 70–79.5 | Grade card C, with the exact score beside it. |
| Below 70 | No grade card is issued. The app shows the score with the line “Below 70 — no grade card”. |
Mecklenburg, Wake and Gaston counties all use North Carolina's statewide sanitation rules. Inspectors deduct in half-point steps, so 89.5 is the highest possible B and 79.5 the highest possible C.
Alabama — Birmingham (Jefferson County)
Inspection score (0–100) with the Alabama Department of Public Health's bands
| Rating | What it means |
|---|---|
| 85–100 | Satisfactory — the establishment stays on its routine inspection schedule. |
| 70–84 | Follow-up required — the health department re-inspects within 60 days. |
| 60–69 | Re-inspection within 48 hours. |
| Below 60 | Closed until the problems are corrected. |
Alabama issues a number, not a letter. The badge shows the score and the state's own band name sits under it — we do not turn the number into a letter grade.
United Kingdom — London, Brighton & Hove
Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS), 0–5, published by the Food Standards Agency
| Rating | What it means |
|---|---|
| 5 | Very good |
| 4 | Good |
| 3 | Generally satisfactory |
| 2 | Improvement necessary |
| 1 | Major improvement necessary |
| 0 | Urgent improvement necessary |
| No rating | Awaiting inspection, awaiting publication, or exempt — the app shows that there is no rating rather than guessing one. |
The wording beside each number is the Food Standards Agency's own. Every U.K. rating is shown with the date it was published.
The score tracker
Every restaurant page keeps the record of its inspections — one reading per inspection, in the authority’s own terms — with a trend chart and the full list.
- How far back. Raleigh (Wake County) since September 2012; Charlotte and Gastonia since September 2013; Birmingham a rolling twelve months, as Jefferson County publishes it. The Food Standards Agency publishes only the current rating, so our U.K. record begins on September 14, 2026 and is re-checked every two days from there.
- Improved / Declined / Steady.Each inspection is compared with the one before it, on the authority’s own scale. The percentages are whole numbers that add up to 100, and the card is hidden when a place has fewer than two inspections on record.
- Improving / Declining. The trend chip compares the latest inspection with the one before it — nothing more elaborate.
Score-change alerts
After each data refresh we publish a list of the restaurants whose score or grade moved. Your phone downloads that public list and compares it with your Favorites, Diary and Trips on the device. What you have saved is never uploaded to make an alert work.
How fresh the data is
We re-check every source at least every two days. The authorities themselves post new inspections within a day or two of the visit, so a new score normally reaches the app within a few days of the inspection. Newly opened restaurants join name search after our weekly index rebuild. The inspection date on each rating tells you exactly how recent it is.
Map pins
A pin marks a restaurant’s street address, not its front door. In the U.S. most addresses are placed with the Census Bureau geocoder; U.K. positions are the coordinates the Food Standards Agency publishes. Restaurants that share one address — every unit of a shopping plaza, for instance — share one point: the app fans those pins out slightly and, when you tap the spot, lists every restaurant there.
Cuisine filters
Cuisine labels are our own estimate from a restaurant’s name. They are not part of the official inspection record and can be wrong — tell us and we will fix them.
Known limitations
- Ratings are not comparable across authorities. North Carolina, Alabama and the U.K. inspect against different rules and weight different risks. Compare a restaurant with others rated by the same authority.
- Inspection frequency varies. Some places are inspected several times a year, others once. The date is always shown.
- History depth varies.Birmingham’s record covers a rolling year and the U.K. record starts in September 2026, so their charts are shorter than North Carolina’s.
- Not every record can be mapped. A small number of official records carry an address that cannot be placed on a map. Those restaurants appear in lists and search but not as pins.
- We can lag the source briefly. Where Inspect My Chef and the official record disagree, the official record controls.
For restaurants: dispute or correct a listing
If your listing does not match your health department’s current record — a score, a date, an address, a pin or a cuisine label — email us with your business name, location and the agency’s most recent rating. We aim to reply within two business days, and a confirmed fix appears at the next data refresh. See Support for what to include.
For disputes about the rating itself, contact your local health agency directly — Inspect My Chef has no authority to amend government inspection records.
Questions
Methodology questions, jurisdiction-specific concerns, or partnership inquiries: Simtechaffiliate@simtaff.com.
This page is updated whenever a place or a rating system is added. See also data sources & licensing.