Twenty-four South Cambridgeshire venues were rated in August: 19 fives, four fours and a 1 for The Beach Fryer in Waterbeach. Across the district, 87% hold a 5.
Twenty-four food businesses across South Cambridgeshire had a new food hygiene rating published in August. Nineteen were given a 5, the top rating, four were given a 4, and one was given a 1. (Food Standards Agency register, South Cambridgeshire)
The one is The Beach Fryer, a takeaway at 1 Denny End Road in Waterbeach, rated 1 on 5 August. A 1 means “major improvement is necessary” in the Food Standards Agency’s own words. (FSA guidance for businesses)
That is not the whole picture, and the register itself explains why. Ratings of 5 go online as soon as the council uploads them. Ratings of 0 to 4 are held back for three to five weeks after the inspection, so the business has time to appeal. August will therefore fill in over the next month, and the top of the scale is always the first to show.
The 19 rated 5
Fourteen of them are premises with a published address:
| Venue | Where | Rated |
|---|---|---|
| The Chequers Public House | 22 Town Green Road, Orwell | 4 August |
| Astex Pharmaceuticals canteen | 436 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road | 5 August |
| Milton Spice | 6B High Street, Milton | 5 August |
| Eden Coffee | 10 South Street, Comberton | 6 August |
| Six Mile Bottom Shoot | Wadlow Farm, Six Mile Bottom Road, West Wratting | 6 August |
| The Three Tuns | 30 High Street, Guilden Morden | 6 August |
| The Printworks | Unit 6 The Press, Station Road, Foxton | 11 August |
| Jeremiahs Café | 66 High Street, Great Abington | 15 August |
| Babraham Fun Pack After School Club | Babraham CofE Primary School, High Street | 18 August |
| National Trust, Wimpole Hall Restaurant | Wimpole Park Road, Wimpole | 20 August |
| Over Community Centre | 16 The Doles, Over | 20 August |
| Provenance Brix and Mortar | Hill Farm Road, Whittlesford | 20 August |
| The Green Man | Dunsbridge Turnpike, Shepreth | 20 August |
| The Jungle Sensory Room | Highfield Farm, Old North Road, Bassingbourn cum Kneesworth | 20 August |
The other five are home or mobile caterers: Orwell Honey, Wildly Preserved, Bambi’s Bakes, Dear Manis and Chinese Street Kitchen. For businesses registered at a private address the FSA publishes only the first part of the postcode, so their full addresses are not on the register.
One entry there is worth a note. The Astex Pharmaceuticals staff canteen is on Cambridge Science Park, with a Cambridge postal address and a CB4 postcode, but Science Park sits inside Milton parish and South Cambridgeshire district, which is why this council inspects it.
The four rated 4, meaning hygiene standards are good, were Comberton Post Office trading as Costcutter at 12 Barton Road, Hauxton Village Shop on St Edmund’s Way, The Queens Head at 48 Royston Road in Harston, and Voyage Care Ltd, a caring premises in the CB1 area.
The one rated 1, and what the scores show
The register publishes three separate scores behind every rating: one for how hygienically food is handled, one for the physical condition of the premises, and one for how the business manages food safety. A higher number is worse.
The Beach Fryer scored 10 for food hygiene, 15 for the structure of the premises and 20 for confidence in management, a total of 45. Under the scheme’s scoring, a total of 45 to 50 with no single score above 20 is a rating of 1.
That third score is the one doing the work, and not only here. Every one of the five South Cambridgeshire businesses currently holding a 1 scored 20 for confidence in management, and both of the two currently holding a 0 scored 30. In several cases the food handling score was the lowest of the three. The pattern in this district is not dirty food so much as a failure to satisfy the officer that standards will hold up after the visit.
South Cambridgeshire District Council says a business given a 0 to 4 can appeal within 21 days if it believes the rating is unfair. It can also use a “right to reply”, which is published on the register alongside the rating, to set out what has been done since. And it can pay for a re-rating inspection once improvements are made, which the council charges £262 for, with no guarantee the rating goes up. (South Cambridgeshire District Council, the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme)
No right to reply was published for The Beach Fryer at the time of writing.
The district picture: 87 per cent hold a 5
August is a snapshot. The register as a whole is the better measure, and it is overwhelmingly good news.
There are 1,317 food businesses on the register for this district. Of those, 1,231 hold a rating, 59 are awaiting their first inspection, and 27 are exempt because they are judged low risk or are caring services at home. Of the 1,231 rated, 1,070 hold a 5, which is 86.9 per cent, and 123 hold a 4.
Eleven hold a 2 or below. They are:
- 0: Direct Caterers, Unit 1 Watsons Yard, High Street, Cottenham, rated 22 May 2026; and Thorn House, a guest house in the CB24 area, rated 29 November 2025.
- 1: The Beach Fryer, Waterbeach, 5 August 2026; Days Bakery & Food Hall, Top Farm Barn, Fowlmere Road, Newton, 14 April 2026; Hardwick Stores and Post Office, 99 Cambridge Road, Hardwick, 11 September 2025; Ceylon Delights, CB23 area, 29 April 2025; and Stemark Food, CB3 area, 21 August 2025.
- 2: Wokswagon, 3 High Street, Cambourne, 10 May 2026; Histon Village Fryer, 6 Station Road, Histon, 17 December 2025; Nivedh Delights, Chesterton Fen Road, Milton, 25 September 2025; and Sam’s Cafe, a mobile caterer, 4 December 2025.
Two of those are recorded as having a new rating pending, which means they have been inspected again and the result has not yet been published: Hardwick Stores and Post Office, and Wokswagon in Cambourne.
What it means for you
A rating is a snapshot of one day, not a running score, so read the date next to it. Four of the eleven businesses at 2 or below were last inspected in 2025, and the register shows what the officer found then, not what the kitchen looks like this week. Two of them have already been re-inspected and are waiting for the new figure to appear.
The practical points:
- Check any venue yourself on the FSA’s rating search, which is free and updated by the council.
- Businesses in England are not legally required to display the sticker, so the absence of one in a window tells you nothing. The website is the record.
- If you think a rating is wrong, that is a matter for the council’s food safety team rather than the FSA, which runs the scheme but publishes what the local authority supplies.
- A business that has improved can pay South Cambridgeshire District Council £262 for a re-rating inspection, so a low score that is months old may already have been overtaken.
Our directory of local businesses lists pubs, cafes and takeaways across the district by village.
Sources
- Food Standards Agency food hygiene rating register, local authority South Cambridgeshire, counted on 2 September 2026 through the FSA’s open ratings data (Open Government Licence), for every rating, score and date in this article.
- Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS): guidance for businesses, updated 30 June 2026 for what each rating means, the three elements inspected, the publication rules for ratings of 0 to 4, the exemptions, and the appeal and right to reply safeguards.
- South Cambridgeshire District Council, the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme for the 21-day appeal window, the right to reply and the £262 re-rating fee.
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