Eight East Hampshire venues hold a food hygiene rating of 1. All eight were marked down on managing food safety, not on handling food. The district has no zeros.
Eleven food businesses in East Hampshire currently hold a food hygiene rating below 3, and every one of the eight rated 1 was marked down for the same thing. It was not dirt, and in seven of the eight cases it was not how they handled food either. It was management of food safety: the systems, the training and the records that tell an inspector standards will hold up after the visit.
That is a reading of the Food Standards Agency’s own register for East Hampshire District Council, taken on 2 September 2026. The district has 1,094 registered food businesses. Of those, 977 currently carry a rating, 74 are awaiting inspection and 43 are exempt.
Nobody in the district holds a zero
Start with the good half of the register, because it is the larger half.
- 824 of the 977 rated businesses hold a 5, the top rating.
- 117 hold a 4 and 25 hold a 3.
- Not one holds a 0, the rating that means urgent improvement is necessary.
- The eight most recent inspections published for the district, carried out between 4 and 10 August, produced seven 5s and one 4.
Bordon and Whitehill are a case in point. The GU35 postcode area has 183 rated food businesses and not one of them sits below a 3.
The eleven that do sit below a 3
An inspector scores three separate things, and the register publishes all three alongside the headline number. The Food Standards Agency describes them as hygienic food handling, the cleanliness and condition of the building, and management of food safety, which it defines as the “system or checks in place to ensure that food sold or served is safe to eat, evidence that staff know about food safety, and the food safety officer has confidence that standards will be maintained in future”.
Set those three side by side and the pattern is hard to miss.
Read across the eight rated 1 and the third column never changes. All eight were recorded as major improvement necessary for management of food safety. Seven of the eight were good or generally satisfactory for hygienic food handling. Two of them, Premier Express at Liss and the Shell filling station at Rowlands Castle, were rated very good for the cleanliness and condition of their premises, the best mark available, and still came out with a 1.
The three rated 2 fail differently. All three were marked improvement necessary for cleanliness and condition, and all three were only generally satisfactory on management. The White Hart at Holybourne, near Alton, was rated very good for hygienic food handling at its inspection on 22 July 2026 and still holds a 2.
| Business | Where | Rating | Inspected | Food handling | Cleanliness and condition | Management of food safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hideout | Turk Street, Alton | 1 | 3 Sep 2025 | Good | Good | Major improvement necessary |
| Premier Express | Hill Brow Road, Liss | 1 | 16 Sep 2025 | Generally satisfactory | Very good | Major improvement necessary |
| Porters Food and Wine | High Street, Alton | 1 | 16 Oct 2025 | Generally satisfactory | Good | Major improvement necessary |
| Froxfield Primary School | Froxfield | 1 | 6 Nov 2025 | Improvement necessary | Generally satisfactory | Major improvement necessary |
| Alton Golf Club | Shalden, Alton | 1 | 6 Jan 2026 | Good | Improvement necessary | Major improvement necessary |
| Alton Gurkha | Market Street, Alton | 1 | 8 Jan 2026 | Good | Good | Major improvement necessary |
| Roger Smith Distillery | Priory Lane, Selborne | 1 | 16 Jan 2026 | Generally satisfactory | Improvement necessary | Major improvement necessary |
| Shell Whichers Gate | Rowlands Castle | 1 | 11 Mar 2026 | Good | Very good | Major improvement necessary |
| Farringdon Coffee Company | Lower Farringdon | 2 | 24 Feb 2026 | Generally satisfactory | Improvement necessary | Generally satisfactory |
| Hen and Chicken Inn | Upper Froyle | 2 | 8 Apr 2026 | Good | Improvement necessary | Generally satisfactory |
| The White Hart | Holybourne | 2 | 22 Jul 2026 | Very good | Improvement necessary | Generally satisfactory |
Every one of those businesses can ask the council to re-inspect once the problems are fixed, can appeal the rating, and has a right to reply that is published alongside it on the register. The Food Standards Agency sets out all three safeguards for businesses. A rating is a snapshot of one day, and some of the dates above are nearly a year old.
Where these places actually are
Most of them are not in Petersfield, and the register makes that plain.
- Eight of the eleven have an Alton address, or an address the register records as a village outside Alton. Alton is about ten miles north of Petersfield.
- Hideout and Porters Food and Wine are on Turk Street and the High Street in Alton itself. Alton Gurkha is on Market Street.
- Alton Golf Club is at Shalden, Roger Smith Distillery at Selborne, Hen and Chicken Inn at Upper Froyle, Farringdon Coffee Company at Lower Farringdon and The White Hart at Holybourne, all villages around Alton.
- Premier Express is on Hill Brow Road in Liss, about four miles north of Petersfield.
- Froxfield Primary School is about four miles west of Petersfield, and is the only entry with a Petersfield postal address.
- Shell Whichers Gate is at Rowlands Castle, about eight miles south.
Nothing in Petersfield town centre appears on this list.
The register is running about three weeks behind
One caveat matters if you go and check the numbers yourself. The most recent inspection published anywhere in the district was carried out on 10 August 2026. Forty inspections were published for July and only eight for August.
That is not a collapse in inspections. It is the normal publication lag: a business must be told its rating in writing within 14 days, and the appeal window runs after that, so the register always trails the work by two to three weeks. Anything inspected in the last fortnight is not on it yet.
What it means for you
- A 1 does not automatically mean a dirty kitchen. In East Hampshire right now, it mostly does not. Read the three area scores on the business’s own page, not just the number on the sticker.
- Equally, a spotless dining room proves nothing about the rating. Two of the district’s 1-rated businesses hold the top mark for the condition of their premises.
- Check the inspection date. Four of the eleven above were last inspected in 2025. A business can have fixed the problem and be waiting for a re-inspection it has paid to request.
- You can look up any business yourself on the Food Standards Agency register, which is free and lists every rated premises in the district along with the three area scores and the local authority’s contact address.
- Businesses that think a rating is wrong should contact East Hampshire District Council’s environmental health team, which is named on every entry in the register as the inspecting authority.
Related
- Petersfield planning news, including applications for new food and drink premises.
- Parking in Petersfield, for getting to the town’s restaurants and cafes.
- Things to do in Petersfield.
Sources
- Food Standards Agency food hygiene rating register, East Hampshire District Council area, read on 2 September 2026, for all establishment counts, every rating, every inspection date and the standard recorded in each of the three inspected areas. The individual business pages used are Hideout, Premier Express, Porters Food and Wine, Froxfield Primary School, Alton Golf Club, Alton Gurkha, Roger Smith Distillery, Shell Whichers Gate, Farringdon Coffee Company, Hen and Chicken Inn and The White Hart.
- Food Hygiene Rating Scheme guidance for businesses, GOV.UK, for the meaning of each rating from 5 to 0, the three elements checked at an inspection, the 14 day rule for telling a business its rating, and the appeal, right to reply and re-rating safeguards.
Food hygiene ratings reflect the standards found on the day of inspection and can change at any re-inspection. Check the Food Standards Agency register for the current rating before relying on any figure here.
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