What "checked" means
Some names on this site are bold, with a small checked beside them. Here is exactly what earns that. Nothing about it is hidden, and nothing about it is for sale.
A business is marked checked when both of these are true
- An official record matches them. One of: a food hygiene Pass from their local council, an active Scottish company registration at Companies House, or a protected-food-name or certification match on the UK Geographical Indications register.
- Someone has confirmed them recently. Within the last 90 days, either one of us has been and checked in person, or the owner has confirmed their own details, or at least 3 people locally have said the listing still looks right.
One without the other is not enough. An official record with no recent confirmation tells you a business existed, not that it is still there on a Tuesday. A recent confirmation with no official record tells you someone said so.
Things worth being plain about
- It is free. Every one of those official records is public and free to be in. Every kind of confirmation is free. There is no charge, anywhere, for any part of this.
- Any business can get it. A one-person bakery and a twenty-year-old farm shop earn it exactly the same way. Nothing about size, age, or spend comes into it.
- It cannot be bought. Not directly, not as part of anything else. If someone ever offers to sell it to you, they are not us.
- It does not change the order. Every list on this site runs A to Z. Always. No one can pay to move up it. Bold changes how a name looks. It never changes where it sits.
- Not being marked means nothing. Most listings are not marked. That is not a judgement about the business — usually it just means nobody has been past recently.
How to get it, if you run a business here
Claim your listing — it is free and takes about two minutes — and confirm your own details. That is the second half done immediately. The first half is usually already true and we simply have not matched it yet; claiming makes that easy to sort out.