Food Safety Rating Scheme for businesses

Have you seen the stars?

The Food Safety Rating Scheme gives consumers information about how well food businesses comply with food safety standards. The higher the star rating means a higher standard of food safety.


Consumers should visit Food Safety Rating Scheme for information on eating out safely.

Get a star rating for your business

During routine food safety inspections, local council Environmental Health Officers calculate a score based on how well the food business meets food safety standards. This score is interpreted into a star rating:

3 stars - good

4 stars - very good

5 stars - excellent

Businesses that score 3, 4 or 5 stars receive a certificate to display proudly and let customers know food safety standards have been met. If a score of less than 3 stars is calculated a certificate will not be awarded and the local council will work with the business to improve compliance.

Participation in the scheme is voluntary for local councils. If a council joins the scheme all food businesses located within the council area will automatically have a star rating calculated based on the results of the next routine council inspection. However, displaying the certificate is not mandatory, each business can choose whether to display this.

Displaying a certificate will show your customers you meet food safety standards.

The Food Safety Rating Scheme helps customers make informed choices about where they eat.

Businesses that underperform and do not receive a star rating certificate will receive education and support from the local council to improve food safety compliance.

Read the What does this mean for my business brochure (PDF 552KB) and the Food Safety Rating Scheme fact sheet (PDF 888KB).

The pilot scheme

The Food Safety Rating Scheme was piloted from October 2014 to August 2015 with 10 councils across the state taking part: Adelaide City Council, Adelaide Hills Council, City of Holdfast Bay, City of Onkaparinga, City of Salisbury, City of Tea Tree Gully, District Council of Mount Barker, Mid Murray Council, The Rural City of Murray Bridge and Wattle Range Council. The pilot began at the request of the Minister for Health as a way of encouraging food safety compliance and educating consumers to make informed choices when eating out. 

Read a summary of the results from the Food Safety Rating Scheme Pilot (PDF 2.9MB).

How are ratings calculated?

Star ratings are calculated during routine inspections with local council Environmental Health Officers. Every Environmental Health Officer must undergo specific training to ensure ratings are calculated consistently across the state.

Businesses can use the inspection form (DOCX 42KB) as a self-check prior to the routine inspection to achieve the best result.

The pilot showed three main areas on non-compliance:

Health and hygiene responsibility for food businesses contains more information on safe food practices.

How the Scheme is working

The Food Safety Rating Scheme was launched statewide in April 2016. After 2 years of its operation, a formal review of the Scheme was initiated in August 2018. As part of this review process, all stakeholders of the Scheme were consulted via online surveys and face-to-face meetings.

The Food Safety Rating Scheme Review Report 2018-19 (PDF 3.07MB) indicates that overall compliance of businesses involved in the Scheme had improved since its launch.

Further information

Phone: (08) 8226 7100
Email: health.FSRS@sa.gov.au