About FSA Food Ratings

Transparent food safety monitoring for Northern Ireland

Project Overview

This platform represents a comprehensive approach to food safety monitoring, leveraging official government data to provide actionable insights for businesses, consumers, and regulatory bodies across Northern Ireland.

Objectives

  • Enhance food safety transparency
  • Provide real-time monitoring capabilities
  • Support data-driven decision making
  • Improve public health outcomes

Scope

  • All 11 Northern Ireland councils
  • Food establishments across all rating categories
  • Historical and real-time data analysis
  • Predictive analytics and trend identification

Data Sources & Methodology

All data originates from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) official API (ratings.food.gov.uk), ensuring accuracy, reliability, and compliance with official standards.

Official Data Source

At this time we exclusively use data from the Food Standards Agency's official API, which provides real-time access to food hygiene ratings and inspection data across the UK, including Northern Ireland.

Data Types Included:
  • Food Hygiene Ratings - Official 0-5 star ratings
  • Establishment Information - Business names, types, addresses
  • Inspection History - Complete inspection records and dates
  • Council Data - Local authority performance metrics
  • Geographic Information - Location-based analytics

Technical Architecture

Built on enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure for reliability, scalability and performance:

Cloud Infrastructure
  • Google Cloud Platform - Scalable, secure infrastructure
  • Cloud Run - Serverless container deployment
  • BigQuery - Data warehousing and analytics
  • Cloud Storage - Data persistence and backup
Application Stack
  • Flask - Python web framework
  • Bootstrap 5 - Responsive UI design
  • JavaScript - Interactive features
  • Docker - Containerized deployment

Additional Information

Data Privacy

We only process publicly available information from official government sources. No personal data is collected or stored.

Data Updates

Data is synchronized daily with the FSA API to ensure the most current information is available.

Target Audience

Designed for consumers, business owners, local authorities, and public health professionals.

Accessibility

Fully responsive design works on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.