Dartford Food Hygiene: 19 Fives, One Care Home Got 2

Dartford Borough Council published 20 food hygiene ratings with August 2026 inspection dates. Nineteen of them were fives, the top rating, and one was a two.

We checked the Food Standards Agency register directly on 1 September 2026 rather than relying on a summary. (Food Standards Agency ratings register, read through its open data service)

The nineteen that got top marks

Five is the Food Standards Agency’s highest rating, and its own wording for it is “hygiene standards are very good”.

The ones with a published trading address were:

Nine more fives went to businesses the register lists without a trading address, which is normal for caterers working from home: Ayo’s Cakes and Bakes, Dehli Lazeez, LddSignatureSpice, The Dinner Club, Nortee Barbeque, Greek Crush, Lilika’s Treats, Danielle’s Dishes, and Skanda Foods / House Of Madras.

We publish this because our news pages carry insolvency notices and refused planning applications week after week, and public registers are far better at recording failure than success. A pub, a farm shop and a town centre supermarket all passing at the top mark is the same register telling the other half of the story.

The exception

The one rating below five went to Bramley Health, listed at The Willows Care Home, Gardenia House, 19 Pilgrims Court, Dartford DA1 5LZ. It was rated 2 on 5 August 2026, in the register’s “caring premises” category. (Food Standards Agency entry, FHRSID 1893708)

The Food Standards Agency’s own wording for a 2 is “some improvement is necessary”.

Officers score three things at an inspection, and a lower score is better:

• how hygienically food is handled, including preparing, cooking, re-heating, cooling and storing it
• the physical condition of the premises, including cleanliness, layout, lighting, ventilation and pest control
• how the business manages food safety, looking at processes, training and systems

The register records the three scores for this inspection as 15 for hygiene, 15 for structure and 10 for confidence in management. Under the agency’s published mapping table, a total of 35 to 40 with no individual score above 15 produces a rating of 2. (Food Hygiene Rating Scheme brand standard, table 3)

A rating is a snapshot of the standards found on the day of the inspection, not a running verdict. The business has a right of appeal, which must be made in writing to the council’s lead officer for food within 21 days of being notified. It also has a right to reply, which is published alongside the rating, and it can request a re-rating visit once it has made improvements. (Food Hygiene Rating Scheme guidance for businesses, Food Standards Agency)

No right to reply was published against this entry when we checked.

How the borough looks overall

Dartford Borough Council’s register holds 1,084 premises. Of those, 928 carry a numerical rating, 94 are awaiting their first inspection and 62 are exempt, which usually means the food handling is low risk.

Of the 928 rated premises:

• 721 are rated 5, which is 77.7 per cent
• 845 are rated 4 or 5, which is 91.1 per cent
• 54 are rated 3
• 29 are rated below 3, and one of those is a zero

So roughly one premises in 32 across the borough is currently below “generally satisfactory”. Twenty inspections in a month producing a single two is close to the borough’s usual pattern, not a departure from it.

What it means for you

You can look up any business yourself. Search the Food Standards Agency ratings site by name or by street, and the entry shows the rating, the date of the inspection and the three scores behind it.

Two things worth knowing when you read one:

• The date matters more than the number. A five awarded three years ago tells you less than a four awarded last month.
• Businesses in England do not have to display the sticker. Wales and Northern Ireland require it, England does not, so an absent sticker is not itself a bad sign. Check the register.

The register covers the whole borough, so it includes Swanscombe, Greenhithe, Longfield, Southfleet, Darenth and the Bluewater units as well as Dartford itself. Some home caterers registered with the council have postcodes outside the borough boundary.

If you are checking on a local business for other reasons, our Dartford business directory lists what is trading in the town, and our news pages cover planning applications across the borough.

Sources: Food Standards Agency ratings register, read for Dartford (local authority 251) through the FSA’s open data service on 1 September 2026; Food Hygiene Rating Scheme guidance for businesses; Food Hygiene Rating Scheme brand standard and statutory guidance.