Kensington Food Hygiene: No Zero Ratings, 16 Below 3

Not one food business in Kensington and Chelsea currently holds a zero food hygiene rating. Read on 6 September, the Food Standards Agency register lists 2,004 premises in the borough and no zeros at all.

Sixteen sit at 1 or 2. That is fewer than one in a hundred of the 1,831 premises that carry a numbered rating. (FSA food hygiene rating data)

The borough is inspected by the council’s own officers, not the FSA. Either an environmental health officer or an authorised technical officer visits, normally with no warning. How often depends on risk, and the council says the interval runs “from every six months (highest risk) to every five years (lowest risk)”. (RBKC, food safety inspections and enforcement)

The borough in one table

Every Kensington and Chelsea premises on the register, as published on 6 September 2026:

The three labels in that table are the FSA’s own words for 5, 4 and 3. (FHRS guidance for businesses)

The 141 awaiting a first inspection are mostly new openings. They are not a score, and they are not a failure.

Better than the boroughs next door

The same register was read for four neighbouring authorities on the same day. Kensington and Chelsea comes out top of the five on every measure.

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Camden is the contrast worth holding on to. It has 50 zero-rated premises and 844 more waiting on a first inspection. Kensington and Chelsea, with about half as many premises, has none of the first and 141 of the second.

The sixteen

These are every Kensington and Chelsea premises published at 1 or 2 on 6 September, newest rating first. The rating is the one the register shows today, and it stands until the next inspection.

Every one of those businesses had 21 days from being told its rating to appeal in writing. Each also has an open-ended right to reply, which the FSA publishes next to the rating, and each can ask for a re-inspection once it has made improvements. Six of the sixteen were last rated in 2025, so a newer visit may already be pending on those.

A rating is not a verdict on the food. It scores three things: how hygienically food is handled, the physical condition of the premises, and how the business manages food safety. The register publishes each of those as a separate score, and on that scale a lower number is the better one. Cafe Romana, rated 1 on 1 July, scored 15 for hygiene, 10 for the condition of the premises and 20 for confidence in management.

Why the last five weeks look spotless

Anyone checking the register in early September will see an unbroken run of fives through August. That is not August being exceptional. It is how the scheme publishes.

• A rating of 5 goes live “as soon as the information is uploaded” by the council.
• Ratings of 0 to 4 are held back and published “3 to 5 weeks after the date of inspection”, so the business can appeal first.

The gap is visible in the borough’s own data on 6 September:

• newest published 5: inspected 1 September
• newest published 4: inspected 29 July
• newest published 3: inspected 28 July
• newest published 1: inspected 24 July

So a “this month” hygiene list is all fives by construction, here and everywhere else in England. The honest reading is that Kensington and Chelsea’s low scores for August have not been published yet, not that there are none.

What it means for you

Checking a specific place takes about ten seconds at ratings.food.gov.uk, which covers takeaways, supermarkets, school kitchens, hotels and caterers as well as restaurants. Display is voluntary in England, where a business “can display your rating in your premises’ window or door”, while in Wales and Northern Ireland it is a legal requirement. An absent green sticker on a Kensington door therefore tells you nothing on its own.

If you think a food business in the borough is unsafe, the council’s food safety team takes complaints that carry a public health risk, including suspected food poisoning. The form is on the RBKC food complaints page, and the food safety team manager can be reached on 020 7361 3002. The council suggests raising minor issues with the shop or supplier first.

If you run one of the sixteen, the route back is a re-rating visit after the improvements are made, and a right to reply that sits on the register alongside the score in the meantime.

Sources

• Food Standards Agency food hygiene rating data, read 6 September 2026 for authorities 107, 120, 100, 119 and 93
• Food hygiene rating scheme: guidance for businesses, GOV.UK
• RBKC food safety inspections and enforcement
• RBKC food complaints

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