Last updated: . This is an independent guide. Dixy Chicken Info is not affiliated with Dixy Chicken or any of its franchisees.
Quick answer: Most Dixy Chicken shops pass their hygiene inspections, but standards vary a lot from shop to shop. Of the 139 Dixy Chicken shops with a Food Standards Agency rating (checked 22 October 2026), 58 score 5 (“very good”) and 115 score 3 or higher. 24 shops score 0 to 2, which means improvement is needed. The average is 3.8 out of 5, lower than KFC, Morley’s, Chicken Cottage or Sam’s Chicken, mainly because every Dixy shop is run by a separate franchise owner. You can check your nearest shop’s rating in our branch finder before you order.
Every Dixy Chicken in England, Wales and Northern Ireland gets a food hygiene rating from its local council. The ratings are public, and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) publishes them all in one register. We went through that register, picked out every shop trading as Dixy Chicken, and added up the results. Here’s what they show.
How clean are Dixy Chicken shops?
The short answer is that most are fine and a minority aren’t. 58 of the 139 rated shops (41.7%) hold the top score of 5. Another 57 score 4 or 3, so 82.7% of Dixy shops are rated “generally satisfactory” or better. At the other end, 24 shops (17.3%) are rated 0, 1 or 2.
| Rating | What the FSA says it means | Dixy Chicken shops | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Very good | 58 | 41.7% |
| 4 | Good | 32 | 23.0% |
| 3 | Generally satisfactory | 25 | 18.0% |
| 2 | Improvement necessary | 14 | 10.1% |
| 1 | Major improvement necessary | 7 | 5.0% |
| 0 | Urgent improvement necessary | 3 | 2.2% |
| Total | 139 | 100% |
Hygiene ratings cover food safety, not halal status. If you want to know whether your local Dixy is halal, see our halal guide.
These ratings are recent. 71 of the shops were inspected in 2026 and another 53 in 2025, so nearly 9 in 10 ratings are less than two years old. A further 9 shops are still waiting for their first inspection, and the one Dixy Chicken in Edinburgh is rated under Scotland’s separate scheme.
What do food hygiene ratings mean?
A hygiene rating tells you how well a business met food hygiene law on the day the council’s food safety officer visited. It isn’t a score for taste, price or service. Inspectors look at three things:
- Food handling: how food is prepared, cooked, cooled, reheated and stored.
- The premises: cleanliness, layout, lighting, ventilation and the condition of the building and equipment.
- Food safety management: whether the business has proper checks and records in place to keep food safe.
Each area is scored, and the combined result becomes the rating from 0 to 5. A 3 means the shop is broadly meeting the law. A 0, 1 or 2 means the officer found problems that need fixing, and the council will usually follow up.
Scotland is different
Scotland uses the Food Hygiene Information Scheme, which gives a simple “Pass” or “Improvement Required” instead of a number. The Dixy Chicken in Edinburgh was rated “Improvement Required” in August 2026. Because the two schemes work differently, it isn’t included in the 0 to 5 figures above.
Dixy Chicken hygiene ratings by city
Results vary by area as much as by shop. Newcastle and Coventry stand out: every rated Dixy Chicken in both cities scores 5. Birmingham, which has by far the most shops, sits close to the national average for the brand.
| Area | Rated shops | Average rating | Rated 5 | Rated 0 to 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Birmingham | 35 | 3.5 | 10 | 7 |
| Manchester | 11 | 4.3 | 6 | 1 |
| Waltham Forest (London) | 6 | 2.8 | 1 | 2 |
| Hackney (London) | 4 | 4.0 | 2 | 1 |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | 4 | 5.0 | 4 | 0 |
| Sandwell | 4 | 4.0 | 1 | 0 |
| Coventry | 3 | 5.0 | 3 | 0 |
| Derby | 3 | 2.3 | 0 | 2 |
| Kirklees | 3 | 2.0 | 0 | 2 |
| Newham (London) | 3 | 3.0 | 1 | 2 |
| Pendle | 3 | 3.0 | 1 | 2 |
| Redbridge (London) | 3 | 4.3 | 1 | 0 |
The table only includes council areas with three or more rated Dixy shops. Dixy Chicken has rated shops in 60 council areas in total, so if your town isn’t listed, search for it in the branch finder. We also have city guides for Walsall and Wolverhampton.
How does Dixy compare with KFC and other chicken shops?
We ran the same check on four other fried chicken chains. Dixy Chicken has the lowest share of 5-rated shops and the highest share rated 0 to 2.
| Chain | Rated UK shops | Rated 5 | Rated 0 to 2 | Average rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KFC | 925 | 93.6% | 0.0% | 4.9 |
| Sam’s Chicken | 40 | 75.0% | 5.0% | 4.6 |
| Chicken Cottage | 66 | 66.7% | 3.0% | 4.5 |
| Morley’s | 141 | 55.3% | 8.5% | 4.3 |
| Dixy Chicken | 139 | 41.7% | 17.3% | 3.8 |
The gap with KFC is the biggest, and the way each business is run explains a lot of it. KFC’s UK restaurants follow one set of company-wide operating standards, with regular brand audits. Dixy Chicken works differently: each shop is owned and run by its own franchisee, who is responsible for its kitchen, staff training and paperwork. That gives local owners more freedom, but it also means standards depend heavily on who runs the shop. The spread of Dixy scores, from a perfect record in Newcastle to lower averages elsewhere, fits that pattern.
It’s worth keeping in mind that a rating is a snapshot. A shop that scored low can make improvements and ask the council for a re-visit, and a shop that scored 5 still has to keep standards up for the next inspection. For more on how the two brands compare on price and halal status, see our Dixy Chicken vs KFC guide.
New Dixy Chicken shops waiting for an inspection
Nine Dixy Chicken listings on the register say “awaiting inspection”. That usually means the shop has recently opened or changed owner, and the council hasn’t rated it yet. As of 22 October 2026, they’re in:
- Birmingham (B10 and B33)
- Christchurch, Dorset (BH23)
- Crewe (CW1)
- Dudley (DY1)
- Manchester (M19)
- Oxford (OX4)
- Stoke-on-Trent, Burslem (ST6)
- Wolverhampton city centre (WV1)
New businesses have to register with their council before they open, and the council then schedules a first inspection. Until that happens, the shop shows no rating at all, which isn’t a bad sign on its own.
How to check your local Dixy’s rating
- Open our Dixy Chicken branch finder, enter your postcode and you’ll see the nearest shops with their latest rating and inspection date.
- Or search the FSA food hygiene ratings website by business name and postcode.
- Look for the green and black sticker in the window or by the counter. Showing it is a legal requirement in Wales and Northern Ireland, but it’s optional in England, so a missing sticker in England doesn’t tell you anything.
- If you order through Just Eat, Uber Eats or Deliveroo, check the shop’s page: many listings show the hygiene rating too.
What to do if you have a concern
If you think a shop has a food hygiene problem, or you became ill after eating there, you can report it to the local council’s food safety team through the FSA’s report a food problem page. It routes your report to the right council based on the shop’s address. For an allergic reaction or any serious illness, get medical help first.
Dixy Chicken hygiene ratings: FAQs
What is Dixy Chicken’s hygiene rating?
There isn’t one rating for the whole brand, because each shop is inspected and rated separately. Across the 139 rated Dixy Chicken shops, 58 score 5 and the average is 3.8 out of 5 (checked 22 October 2026).
Is Dixy Chicken clean?
Most Dixy Chicken shops meet hygiene standards: 82.7% score 3 (“generally satisfactory”) or higher. About 1 in 6 score 0 to 2, so it’s worth checking your own shop’s rating before you order.
How do I check a Dixy Chicken shop’s hygiene rating?
Use our branch finder or search the FSA ratings website by name and postcode. Both show the latest rating and the date of the inspection.
Why do Dixy Chicken shops have different hygiene ratings?
Each Dixy Chicken is run by a separate franchise owner and inspected separately by its local council, so results depend on how each individual shop is managed.
What does a 0 food hygiene rating mean?
The FSA describes a 0 as “urgent improvement necessary”. It means the inspector found serious problems that the business must fix, and the council will normally follow up.
How often are takeaways inspected?
Councils decide how often to inspect each business based on its risk. It can range from every few months to every couple of years, and new or low-rated businesses are often visited sooner.
Does Dixy Chicken in Scotland have a hygiene rating?
Scotland uses a Pass or Improvement Required result instead of a 0 to 5 score. The one Dixy Chicken listed in Edinburgh was rated Improvement Required in August 2026.
How we checked
We searched the FSA’s public food hygiene register on 22 October 2026 for every business trading as “Dixy Chicken”, including shops that share a kitchen with other brands. We left out similarly named businesses that don’t use the Dixy Chicken name. The chain comparison uses the same register and the same date. Percentages are of shops with a rating from 0 to 5; shops awaiting inspection and the Scottish shop aren’t included. We’ll update these figures every month.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: Food Standards Agency food hygiene ratings.
