Three in four rated Sutton venues hold a 5. Of the 39 scoring below 3, sixteen are shops. Nine of those ratings have stood for over a year.
Sutton council’s food hygiene register now covers 1,330 premises. Of those, 1,169 hold a numeric rating, and 873 of them hold the top score of 5. That is three in four.
Thirty-nine do not reach a 3, the score the Food Standards Agency calls “generally satisfactory”. Two hold a zero, 17 hold a 1 and 20 hold a 2. (Food Standards Agency register, read 2 September 2026)
The pattern in that group is not the one most people expect. It is not takeaways and it is not restaurants. It is shops.
Where the low ratings actually are
Sixteen of the 39 sit in the FSA category “retailers, other”, which covers convenience stores, off-licences, newsagents and mini-markets. That is 7.1% of the 225 such shops the council has rated. Restaurants, cafes and canteens are the borough’s biggest category at 300 rated premises, and only nine of them are below a 3, or 3.0%.
Two categories have no premises below a 3 at all: the borough’s 122 “other catering premises” and its 65 rated schools and colleges. Of 144 rated caring premises, one is below a 3.
There is also a clear geography. SM2, covering Belmont and the south of Sutton, has 111 rated premises and not one of them is below a 3. SM1, the town centre and Rose Hill, has 15 of the 39.
The two zeros
| Business | Address | Rated |
|---|---|---|
| Best One | 352 Middleton Road, Carshalton SM5 1HA | 21 July 2026 |
| Favour Chicken Burger And Ribs | 50 Stafford Road, Wallington SM6 9AY | 25 February 2026 |
Both were scored identically on the register: 20 for hygienic food handling, 15 for the condition of the structure, and 20 for confidence in management.
Those numbers read backwards. In this scheme a higher score is a worse result, and the single worst of the three areas caps the overall rating whatever the total comes to. A 20 in any one area is the top of the scale for that area.
Nine low ratings have stood for more than a year
A rating is a snapshot of one inspection. It stays published until the next one, so an old low rating tells you when the council last looked, not what the kitchen is like today.
Nine of the 39 below-3 ratings were given more than a year ago and have not been replaced:
| Rating | Business | Address | Rated |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | St Peter’s News | 145 Epsom Road, Sutton SM3 9EY | 12 September 2023 |
| 2 | JKS Express | 66 Manor Road, Wallington SM6 0AB | 9 November 2024 |
| 2 | The Raj | 16 St Dunstans Hill, Cheam SM1 2UE | 13 January 2025 |
| 2 | Rosehill Mini Market | 60 The Market, Rose Hill, Sutton SM1 3HE | 19 February 2025 |
| 1 | Best One | 213 Carshalton Road, Carshalton SM5 3PZ | 10 March 2025 |
| 1 | Sureyan Express | 20 The Market, Wrythe Lane, Carshalton SM5 1AG | 16 April 2025 |
| 2 | Serans | 147 Stafford Road, Wallington SM6 9BN | 19 June 2025 |
| 2 | RFC | 61 The Market, Rose Hill, Sutton SM1 3HE | 8 July 2025 |
| 2 | Foodland | 702 London Road, North Cheam SM3 9BY | 11 August 2025 |
Seven of the nine are shops. The oldest, St Peter’s News on Epsom Road, was rated 1 on 12 September 2023, which is 1,086 days before this article was published.
Staleness is not confined to the low scores. Across the whole register, 142 of the 1,169 rated premises were last inspected more than two years ago.
August was a good month
Twenty-one Sutton premises were given new ratings in August 2026, and 14 of them scored a 5. Two scored a 4, four scored a 3, and one scored a 2.
The most recent rating date anywhere on the Sutton register is 26 August 2026. The register publishes behind the inspections themselves, so the last week or two of results will not be showing yet.
A further 54 premises are registered with the council but marked “awaiting inspection”, which is normal for businesses that have opened recently and not yet been visited.
What it means for you
- Check the shop, not just the restaurant. The register covers convenience stores, newsagents and off-licences as well as places you eat in, and in Sutton that is where the low scores are.
- Read the date, not just the number. A 1 from 2023 tells you nothing about 2026. A 5 from last month tells you a lot.
- A rating is one inspection. The FSA says a business can appeal if it thinks the rating is wrong or unfair, and will be told the outcome within 21 days of the council receiving the appeal.
- Ratings can change quickly. A business that has made improvements can ask for a re-visit, which the FSA says should be carried out within three months of the request, or of payment where the council charges for one.
- Businesses can answer back on the record. There is no deadline for submitting a right to reply, and what a business says is published alongside its rating. (FSA safeguards for businesses)
Every figure here comes from the Food Standards Agency’s published register for the London Borough of Sutton, downloaded in full on 2 September 2026. Ratings are a record of one inspection on one date, they are published by the council, and they may have changed since. Any business named above may appeal, request a re-visit or publish a right to reply, and we will update this page if a rating listed here changes.
More Sutton information: our local business directory, bin collection days and planning applications.
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