Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Where does the food outlet data in Feat come from?

Feat uses food outlet locations from the Food Standards Agency's Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) data. FHRS data contains information on food outlets submitted regularly by local authorities, who collect this data to facilitate food hygiene inspections. It is one of the most complete secondary sources of food outlet data in England.

Can I use Feat to see the precise locations of individual food outlets?

No. Feat shows aggregate food environment data and not the locations of outlets. This may change in future. If this is very important to you, please do get in touch to let us know!

Can I download data from Feat?

Feat is a tool for data visualisation, with no data download facility (at present). Please feel free to take screenshots (see How can I export maps from Feat?).

How often is Feat updated?

Feat is updated every month. This will ensure that Feat remains reliable and up-to-date. Furthermore, historic data will be retained within Feat, allowing you to explore change in the food environment over time.

I'd like to be able to see LSOA level data for the whole of England at one time. Is this possible?

Whichever geography you are viewing, clicking 'Lock level' will allow you to zoom out up to five zoom levels. Each time you zoom out you see more and more areas, and therefore more and more data. For LSOAs in particular (and especially in major cities), you will quickly be displaying many thousands of small areas at once, and you will probably have to wait while this information loads. At this time it is not feasible to transmit the amount of data that would be required to view any geographic level beyond five levels of zooming out.

I've used the Enable child boundaries selection function to Select all grand-children boundaries, but I can't see the selected areas.

It's very likely that the map is currently auto-zoomed to another level of geographic area, and that your grand-child area selection is being masked by a higher level set of boundaries. For example, you have chosen to select all (grand-children) LSOAs within a Local Authority, but the zoom level means that the selected LSOAs are masked by (children) MSOAs. Continue zooming in, in this case beyond MSOAs, to see your selection. Also, confirm that Boundary select level is set to reflects your desired level of selection, and that Number of boundaries selected is not 0.

How do I cite screenshots from Feat in a presentation and a report I'm writing?

Please use the following citation for Feat, which includes acknowledgement of our data suppliers:

Food environment assessment tool (Feat) insert year, MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge, www.feat-tool.org.uk.
Leaflet | Map data © OpenStreetMap | Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

How can I export maps from Feat?

The best way is to enter full screen mode (F11), press print screen (PrtScn) on your keyboard, and paste into an application like Microsoft Word.

I have a question that isn't answered here, and a suggestion for how Feat could be improved, can I get in touch?

Yes. We'd really like to hear from you. We'd also love to hear how you've used Feat. Please email the Feat development team at feat-tool@mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk..