760 of 965 rated food businesses in Stafford borough hold a 5, sixth of eight Staffordshire districts. None is rated 0, five are rated 1. September: all 5s.
Almost four in five food businesses in Stafford borough hold the top food hygiene rating. Of the 965 premises with a published rating, 760 are rated 5, or “very good”. That is 78.8%.
That puts Stafford sixth of Staffordshire’s eight district councils. Five districts are above 85%. No business in the borough is rated 0, and every one of the 18 ratings published in September was a 5.
The figures come from the Food Standards Agency’s ratings register, which Stafford Borough Council’s inspectors feed. We downloaded every published rating for the borough and its neighbours on 7 October 2026.
September’s ratings were all 5s
The council published 18 new ratings in September, and all 18 were the top score. They include:
- St Anne’s Catholic Primary School, Weeping Cross, and Blessed Mother Teresa’s Catholic Primary School, Highfields
- Impact Food Group, trading as Dolce, the caterer at Blessed William Howard Catholic School
- Kids Planet Horn End nursery on Lammascote Road, and Mumbles Day Nursery at Walton Community Centre in Stone
- Yo! To Go! at Tesco Extra on Newport Road
- Sugar and Spice at the Stafford Rangers social club on Astonfields Road
- Fairway Service Station on Lichfield Road, Stone
- Trentham Garden Centre and Grape Tree at Trentham Gardens, on the borough’s northern edge
The rest were home bakers, caterers and small food producers. Schools and nurseries made up five of the 18, which matters to parents: those kitchens feed children every day.
How Stafford compares
| District | Rated premises | Rated 5 | Share rated 5 | Rated 0 to 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Staffordshire | 685 | 594 | 86.7% | 13 |
| Cannock Chase | 719 | 622 | 86.5% | 7 |
| Tamworth | 499 | 431 | 86.4% | 7 |
| Newcastle-under-Lyme | 905 | 780 | 86.2% | 27 |
| Staffordshire Moorlands | 808 | 688 | 85.1% | 14 |
| Stafford | 965 | 760 | 78.8% | 18 |
| East Staffordshire | 1,003 | 735 | 73.3% | 47 |
| Lichfield | 782 | 573 | 73.3% | 11 |
Stoke-on-Trent, a separate unitary council, sits at 79.0%, almost level with Stafford.
Stafford’s gap is not about failing kitchens. Only 1.9% of its rated premises are on 0, 1 or 2, one of the lower shares in the county. The difference is the middle: 143 premises, or 14.8%, are rated 4 (“good”) rather than 5. Another 44 are rated 3 (“generally satisfactory”).
Not every food business has a rating yet. The register lists 1,124 premises for the borough in total. Of the rest, 97 are awaiting their first inspection, often because they are new, and 62 are exempt because they carry little food risk.
The lowest ratings in the borough
No Stafford business is rated 0, “urgent improvement necessary”. Five are rated 1, “major improvement necessary”. This is how the register showed them on 7 October:
| Business | Address | Rated 1 on |
|---|---|---|
| The Boppin Dolphin (takeaway) | 12a Bridge Street, Stafford | 20 November 2025 |
| The Windmill Inn (pub) | Hilderstone Road, Meir Heath | 18 December 2025 |
| Stone Road Post Office (shop) | 245 Stone Road, Stafford | 19 December 2025 |
| Kim’s Kitchen (takeaway) | 29 Sandon Road, Stafford | 7 January 2026 |
| Jubilee Catering (mobile caterer) | Tollgate Industrial Estate, Beaconside | 20 May 2026 |
Meir Heath is in the north of the borough, about 12 miles from Stafford on the edge of Stoke-on-Trent.
Thirteen more premises are rated 2, “improvement necessary”:
| Business | Address | Rated 2 on |
|---|---|---|
| Neway Chinese Takeaway | Bodmin Avenue, Weeping Cross | 4 March 2025 |
| Szechuan House | 50 Foregate Street, Stafford | 11 March 2025 |
| Metro Express Store | 28-29 Corporation Street, Stafford | 14 March 2025 |
| Pg’s | 22 Charnley Road, Stafford | 19 March 2025 |
| King Edward VI High School | West Way, Highfields | 27 June 2025 |
| Little Ingestre House (care premises) | Ingestre Park Road, Ingestre | 24 September 2025 |
| Granvilles | 3-5 Station Road, Stone | 28 October 2025 |
| Keto Jars | ST17 (home business) | 16 December 2025 |
| The Crown and Anchor | 1 Station Road, Stone | 13 February 2026 |
| Castle Church Primary School | Tennyson Road, Highfields | 11 March 2026 |
| Doxey Fish Bar | 211 Doxey, Stafford | 8 April 2026 |
| The Crown Hotel | 38 High Street, Stone | 22 May 2026 |
| Caffe Nero | 21a Gaolgate Street, Stafford | 6 August 2026 |
The register flags a new rating as pending for three of them: Neway Chinese Takeaway, Szechuan House and Castle Church Primary School, so their scores may change soon.
A low rating describes the premises on the day of the inspection. Several of these are more than a year old, and a business may have improved since. Every business can appeal a rating, ask for a re-inspection once it has made improvements, and publish a right to reply on the register. None of the 18 had used the right to reply when we checked.
What it means for you
- Check before you order. The FSA’s search covers every takeaway, café, pub, school kitchen and home baker the council has registered.
- Do not rely on the window sticker. Displaying the rating is voluntary in England, so a missing sticker tells you nothing.
- A 4 is still good. The scheme calls it “good”, and most of Stafford’s non-5 businesses are on a 4.
- Report a problem to Stafford Borough Council’s food safety team through the council’s website. The council inspects and rates every food business in the borough, including in Stone and the villages.
We will update this page each month as new ratings are published.
Sources
- Food Standards Agency food hygiene ratings, the register’s open data API, for every rating, date and address in this article. Downloaded 7 October 2026 for Stafford, South Staffordshire, Cannock Chase, Tamworth, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire Moorlands, East Staffordshire, Lichfield and Stoke-on-Trent.
- Individual business pages on the FSA register, linked in the tables above.
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