Birmingham has an incredible food scene. Its food hygiene? Not so much. A new report, which analysed Food Standards Agency (FSA) data for almost 240,000 food businesses across the UK, has named the West Midlands as the 9th worst region (only beating London) for food hygiene ratings.
High Speed Training, the online training provider, found that the West Midlands has an average food hygiene rating across all food establishments of 4.47 from 18,181 premises (a 0.02 rise on 2025). This is below the national average, which sits at 4.58, although anything above a 4 should be considered ‘Good’.
How has the best and worst food hygiene ratings in the West Midlands?
The best spots for food hygiene in the West Midlands were Shrewsbury and Telford. Both recorded an average score of 4.74 from over 350 premises, placing them joint 13th in the national rankings. Meanwhile, the biggest region improver was Lichfield, which increased its rating by 0.18 from 2025, placing it 3rd in the West Midlands.
The lowest average rating in both the region and the country was Walsall, with an average score of 4.03, meaning it ranked joint 55th in the national rankings. But Birmingham wasn’t that much better: 14th in the West Midlands and 53rd in the UK, the Second City had an average score of 4.16.
High Speed Training’s report also found that 23.4% of takeaways across the West Midlands scored 3 or below, and that 85.69% of premises scored a 4 or a 5 on their rating, including 86.98% of restaurants and cafes. The most common rating by businesses, though, was 5, with 69.48% of all premises across the West Midlands scoring top marks.
To view the report in full, and to see how your area compares to others, head here.
