A G Smith Butchers in Boreham went from a 1 in July to a 5 in September. And August was not all 5s after all: eight later ratings came in lower.
A G Smith Butchers in Boreham has gone from one of the lowest food hygiene ratings in the Chelmsford district to the top mark.
The family butcher on Plantation Road was rated 1, “major improvement necessary”, after an inspection on 10 July. It was inspected again on 18 September and rated 5, “very good” (FSA register).
The new inspection found:
- hygienic food handling: very good
- cleanliness and condition of the building: very good
- management of food safety: good
Boreham is about four miles north-east of Chelmsford city centre. The butcher was one of nine premises in the district rated 1 when we last went through the register, on 1 September.
August was not a clean sweep
Our report on 1 September said that all 36 ratings published for August were 5s. That was true of the register that morning. It is not true now, and the reason is a rule we should have explained at the time.
The Food Standards Agency publishes a 5 as soon as the council uploads it. A rating of 0 to 4 is held back. In the FSA’s words, ratings of 0 to 4 “will be published 3 to 5 weeks after the date of inspection to allow for an appeal to be submitted” (Food Standards Agency).
So the good news always arrives first. Any early count of a month’s ratings will look better than the month really was.
The register read on 6 October 2026 holds 57 ratings dated August. Forty-nine are 5s. The other eight arrived later:
- six rated 4, “good”
- one rated 2, “improvement necessary”
- one rated 1, “major improvement necessary”
The two lowest from August
The Dog And Gun Restaurant, Boreham Road, Great Leighs, was rated 1 after an inspection on 14 August. Great Leighs is about seven miles north of the city. The officer found:
- hygienic food handling: generally satisfactory
- cleanliness and condition of the building: very good
- management of food safety: major improvement necessary
Kaspa’s, 22 Springfield Road, Chelmsford, was rated 2 after an inspection on 26 August. The officer found:
- hygienic food handling: good
- cleanliness and condition of the building: improvement necessary
- management of food safety: generally satisfactory
The register shows a new rating pending for Kaspa’s. That means it has been inspected again and the result has not yet been published.
The six August 4s are Baddow Park House and Rennas Brasserie in Galleywood, The Bell Inn at Woodham Ferrers, Thurley Meats in Great Baddow, Voujon on Broomfield Road, and Walthambury Stores.
A second climb, in Great Waltham
Walthambury Stores, on Barrack Lane in Great Waltham, is the other business to leave the bottom of the table. It was rated 1 in August 2025. On 1 September we reported that it had been inspected again and was waiting for the result.
That result is now published. It is a 4, from an inspection on 10 August 2026, with hygienic food handling and the building both rated very good (FSA register).
September so far
The register holds 52 ratings dated September. Fifty-one are 5s.
The one below that is Fancy Fry, 9 Moulsham Street, rated 3, “generally satisfactory”, on 2 September.
Read that 51 out of 52 with the August lesson in mind. Any premises inspected after the middle of September and rated below 5 will not appear until later in October. The real September figure will be lower than this one.
Where the district stands
The register lists 1,613 Chelmsford premises. Of those, 1,458 carry a rating. Another 92 are exempt from the scheme and 63 are waiting for a first inspection.
| Rating | What it means | Premises | On 1 September |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Very good | 1,338 | 1,336 |
| 4 | Good | 85 | 84 |
| 3 | Generally satisfactory | 19 | 19 |
| 2 | Improvement necessary | 8 | 7 |
| 1 | Major improvement necessary | 7 | 9 |
| 0 | Urgent improvement necessary | 1 | 1 |
Nine in ten rated premises, 91.8%, hold a 5. Sixteen sit below 3, one fewer than a month ago.
The single 0 has not moved. Polska Babka, an importer and exporter at a CM1 address, has held it since an inspection on 2 May 2025, and no new rating is pending.
Last month we found that all ten premises rated 1 or 0 had been marked down on management of food safety. That still holds for all eight now at 1 or 0. Management is the FSA’s term for the checks, records and training behind the cooking, and the officer’s confidence that standards will hold up after the visit.
What it means for you
- Check the date, not just the number. A sticker shows the last inspection, which can be more than a year old. The register shows the date and the three scores behind the rating.
- A low rating is not a closure. It is the officer’s judgement on the day. A business that fixes the problems can ask for a re-inspection, as A G Smith’s and Walthambury Stores’ new ratings show.
- Treat any early monthly count with care, including ours. The 5s are published first and the lower ratings follow three to five weeks later.
Every business named here can appeal its rating, ask for a re-inspection or publish a right to reply on the register. The FSA’s page for each business explains how. You can search any premises on the food hygiene rating register.
Sources
- FSA food hygiene rating register, Chelmsford City Council area, read through the FSA’s open data on 6 October 2026, for every count, rating, inspection date and score in this article, and the individual business pages linked above.
- Food Standards Agency: food hygiene ratings for businesses for the rule that 5s are published straight away and ratings of 0 to 4 three to five weeks after the inspection.
- The Chelmsford Times, 1 September 2026 for the 1 September counts.
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