Solihull Food Hygiene: 3 Zero Ratings, 79% Rated Five

Three food businesses in Solihull borough currently hold a zero food hygiene rating, the Food Standards Agency register showed on 1 September. Two of them have held that rating for more than a year.

The newest is The Mandi Hub, 256 Gospel Lane, Olton, inspected on 2 July and rated 0, meaning urgent improvement necessary. (Food Standards Agency)

That sits against a borough picture that is mostly good. Of the 1,255 Solihull premises carrying a rating, 991 hold a 5. That is 79 per cent. A further 106 are on the register awaiting their first inspection.

The three zero ratings

A rating records what an officer found on the day of the inspection. It is not a statement about conditions now.

Sources: the FSA register entries for The Mandi Hub, Joe & The Juice and Spud U Like.

The gap matters. The Station Road and Parkgate ratings have stood for about eleven and seventeen months. None of the three had a new rating pending when we checked the register.

All three, and any business, can ask the council for a re-inspection once the improvements have been made, and can publish a right to reply on the register. More on both below.

July’s inspections, the last full month

July is the most recent month the register covers completely. Solihull published 32 ratings from July inspections:

• 27 rated 5
• 2 rated 4
• 2 rated 1
• 1 rated 0

The two rated 1 tell different stories. At Chelmunds Chip Shop, Unit 4, 856 Chester Road, B37 7WG, inspected 16 July, the officer recorded food handling and the cleanliness of the building as generally satisfactory. What pulled the rating down was management of food safety, marked major improvement necessary. (Food Standards Agency)

At Its Lahore, 44 Station Road, Solihull, inspected 22 July, food handling and cleanliness were both marked improvement necessary, and management again major improvement necessary. (Food Standards Agency)

The two rated 4 were St Mary and St Margaret’s C of E Primary School in Castle Bromwich, inspected 10 July, and Ladybird Montessori, 6 St Helens Road, Solihull, inspected 14 July.

August is not comparable yet. Thirteen August inspections had been published by 1 September, twelve of them rated 5 and one rated 4. The most recent entry on the register was an inspection carried out on 25 August, so the month is still filling in.

What the ratings actually measure

An officer scores three separate things, and the overall rating is built from all three:

• Hygienic food handling. How food is prepared, cooked, re-heated, cooled and stored.
• Cleanliness and condition of the building. Layout, ventilation, hand washing facilities and pest control.
• Management of food safety. The checks and records in place, staff knowledge, and whether the officer is confident standards will hold.

That last one is why a kitchen can look clean and still score badly. Both of Solihull’s July ones were dragged down by management rather than by dirt.

What it means for you

• Look for the sticker, but check the date. In England a business is not legally required to display its rating, unlike in Wales and Northern Ireland, so the register at ratings.food.gov.uk is the reliable check. Every entry gives the inspection date. (gov.uk, FHRS guidance for businesses)
• A low rating can be old news, or it can be current. A business that has fixed the problems can ask its council for a re-visit and a new rating. In England some councils charge for that and some do not, and the new rating can be higher, lower or the same. (gov.uk, FHRS guidance for businesses)
• Businesses have a right of appeal and a right of reply. An appeal must be made in writing to the council within 21 days of being told the rating. There is no deadline on the right to reply, which is published alongside the rating on the register. (gov.uk, FHRS guidance for businesses)
• You can ask for the inspection report. The register tells you to request it from the council that carried out the inspection, which here is Solihull.
• Report a concern to the council. Food safety complaints about a Solihull premises go to Solihull Council’s food safety team.

What is trading across the borough is in our Solihull business directory and our Shirley directory. Enforcement of a different kind reached an Olton shop last week: read our report on the Warwick Road closure order.

Sources

• Food Standards Agency food hygiene rating register, Solihull local authority data read on 1 September 2026 via the FSA’s open ratings API (the 1,255 rated premises, the split of 991 fives, 148 fours, 63 threes, 17 twos, 33 ones and 3 zeros, the 106 awaiting inspection, the 32 July inspections and the 13 August inspections published so far)
• Food Standards Agency register entries for The Mandi Hub, Joe & The Juice, Spud U Like, Chelmunds Chip Shop and Its Lahore (each address, inspection date, rating, and the wording recorded against each of the three inspected areas)
• gov.uk, Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS): guidance for businesses (the three areas assessed, the 21-day appeal deadline, the right to reply having no deadline, the re-visit rules and fees, and display of the rating being optional in England but a legal requirement in Wales and Northern Ireland)
• Solihull Council, Food safety (what each rating from 5 down to 0 means, and how to make a food safety complaint about a premises in the borough)

Image: Town centre shops, Shirley, by Richard Law, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph and Wikimedia Commons: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Town_centre_shops,Shirley-geograph.org.uk-_4497446.jpg. Chart by The Solihull Post.