Primary Schools in the UK with Poor Food Hygiene Ratings - September 2024

School dinners bring back memories for everyone whether they're of watery, over cooked veg and lumpy mashed potato from an ice cream scoop or turkey twizzlers and coconut jam cake.

Throughout the years there have been famous campaigns related to school dinners. In the early 2000s Jamie Oliver's drive to make them healthier, to the great annoyance of those in school at the time and Marcus Rashford's effort to make them free during the pandemic which got great public support.

A shocking 65 primary schools in the UK have been given a rating of 2 or under meaning that they don't meet the 'generally satisfactory' rating and 4 of them even have a rating of 0 meaning an urgent improvement is required.

Out of the thousands of McDonald's, Burger Kings and KFCs in the UK, not a single one of them currently has a rating of 0 even though many of the staff are teenagers working their first job. So why do so many primary schools have poor food hygiene ratings?

Many of the fast food restaurants are franchises and each of the fast food chains likely has strict terms in their contracts in order for the franchisee to keep using the company's name, while also providing training on food hygiene. Who are the schools with poor food hygiene ratings accountable to? The Department for Education should be on top of this but with the post of Secretary of State for Education being held by four separate people in less than a year between 2021 and 2022, good luck with any accountability being held there.