Ealing has the second highest amount of restaurants and cafés with poor food hygiene ratings in the country, a new study shows.
Information taken from Food Standards Agency (FSA) shows that 28.2% of restaurants and cafés in Ealing were rated between 0 and 2, reports Love My Vouchers.
The figure makes it the second highest out of council districts in the UK, excluding Scotland, putting it behind Birmingham.
The new statistics come as one Ealing restaurant was rated as zero towards the end of last year.
Ealing also has the second highest percentage of zero ratings in the country at 3.1%, from a total of 554 in the borough.
An Ealing Council spokesman said:"Ealing is a large and diverse borough with around 3,200 food businesses and manufacturers.
"We work closely with businesses to help them operate safely and legally and the majority have a hygiene rating of three or above.
"However, those who persistently fail to operate safely and who are putting the public at risk face tough action from us and we will not hesitate to give a low rating if it is justified.
"The council has one of the strongest records of food safety enforcement in London and is actively working to safeguard residents.
"We issue all food businesses with a window sticker showing their hygiene rating.
"Our advice is to always check the rating at www.food.gov.uk before buying food from any business, this includes supermarkets, cafes, corner shops and butchers, as well as restaurants, and if a business is not displaying its window sticker, to be curious about why that might be."
But the figures were met with criticism from Conservative group leader in Ealing, Cllr Greg Stafford, who said the council should be doing more to combat the situation.
Cllr Stafford added: "A good food hygiene rating gives people the confidence that a business is taking food hygiene seriously.
"They also need to have confidence that the council is proactively inspecting and re-inspecting these businesses to make sure that they meet the stringent requirements of selling food that is safe to eat.
"Ealing’s rating as the second worst performing borough suggests that the Labour Administration is clearly failing residents in this area."
Following an inspection in November last year, Ealing Mangal, in Uxbridge Road, was given a food hygiene rating of zero.
FSA found it required "urgent improvement necessary" in "management of food safety".
Ealing Mangal has declined to comment.
Keep up to date with the latest news in west London via the free getwestlondon app
You can even set it to receive push notifications for all the breaking news in your area
Available to download from the App Store or Google Play for Android now!
