London's food establishments
standards

General information 

There are 67,337 establishments which handle food in the London area. The average rating for London is 4,27. There are 35,688 places with the highest rating of five stars and 13,267 with the food hygiene rating four. 

On the other side, there are 236 places with a food hygiene rating of zero and overall 5,101 businesses with a rating below three, showing that regardless the high number of perfectly safe places, the possibility of walking into premises with poor hygiene rating is notable.

Takeaways and Restaurants

The worst situation is among businesses such as takeaway and sandwich shop, which there are 7,111 in London, with the average possibility of one in eight of getting the food from a poorly rated place. 

Second in the ranking came up restaurants, cafés and canteens, which there are 21,286 in London, with one in 10 where hygiene rating is below three.

Some people consider also places with rating three unsafe.

Alba Di Bari, a waitress at one of London’s restaurants said: “I am working with food on the daily basis and our restaurant has a hygiene rating of five.

"Yet, I can still see embarrassing things happening every day, cross contaminations and lack of properly washed hands. 

“If the restaurant has rating hygiene of three, business is on the border of needing improvements and that is bad. I would refer from this type of places too.”

Looking at the data from FSA, among takeaways and sandwich shops there are 1,374 places with a rating of three stars and another 2,689 of them in the group of restaurants, cafes and canteens.

These numbers rise to 7,438 places, in the general category, in the whole of London with a rating of three.

Therefore, for some people this additional data significantly decreases the number of places they can choose from, when deciding to eat out.

The situation becomes more complicated as the displaying of rating is, so far, voluntary in England. 

Lowri Williams from Food Standard Agency commented: “The FSA is committed to making the display of food hygiene ratings mandatory in England, just as it already is in Wales and Northern Ireland. The evidence case for the necessary legislation is ready.”

The consideration by the government of the case, could make it more transparent and straightforward when looking for a place to eat.

Potentional improvements

The councils are not the only organization putting consumer over the businesses and emphasising the importance of high food hygiene ratings. Delivery company Just Eat in 2019 decided on removing from their platform any company with a rating below three. 

Graham Corfield, Managing Director of Just Eat in the UK, commented: “At Just Eat, we’re focused on helping the UK’s vibrant takeaway sector grow and thrive. We know that running a small, independent business is not without its challenges, and food hygiene and safety is a vital area that restaurants need to get right.

“Helping our customers access brilliant food and supporting restaurants to prosper and grow is what Just Eat is here to do.”

The company committed itself to improve the level of hygiene in the UK’s takeaway establishments and directed one million pounds towards increasing that sector standards. 

According to our investigation, the same discrepancy can be present in case of food poisoning and its association with poor food hygiene rating.

Dr Lisa Ackerely, Environmental Health Practitioner said: “Much food poisoning is caused in the home. Campylobacter is mainly sporadic, and there are not many outbreaks, leading me to believe that many cases may be caused by poor food hygiene practices at home. Laboratory data might not show all the numbers.”

Food poisoning

Food poisoning is an illness obtain after consuming contaminated food. It usually lasts a few days and does not require much treatment. 

There are two most frequent causes of food poisoning. Norovirus is the most common gastrointestinal illness and is mainly non-food (88 per cent) or Campylobacter the most common bacterial, but you can’t tell who can give it to you - a matter of poor practices which people may not be able to see from the customer area. 

As for the risk of developing the virus or bacteria, handling raw then cooked food without washing hands and failing to disinfect between raw and cooked food preparation area, is probably one of the biggest risks. 

Dr Ackley illustrated the example: “If you see someone in a kebab shop handle raw meat and then not wash their hands and serve you, then that is an indication of poor hygiene and most likely risk of potential food poisoning.”

One of the residents of Islington borough, who wish not to be named, suffered from food poisoning which she got twice in the same place. Eating out.

The first time it happened it was after the new opening of the coffee shop and sample of a new bagel with beef. 

The sickness lasted for a few days and apart of minor dehydration it not had serious implications.

The second time after having a full meal at the same place, sickness lasted for more than a few days and visit the GP confirmed serious food poisoning.

After initial research, it turned out that the restaurant received a low food hygiene rating and decided not to display it only to close the business only three months from the day of opening.

“I did not suspect that it could occur in such a neat looking place. However, after the second time of getting food poisoned within one month, I understood that the first appearance will not always show what is behind the curtain.

“I pay much more attention to Food Hygiene Rating these days and never eat out in any place where the rating is lower than three or you can see it at all,” said the resident of Islington.

Food poisoning in London

There is very limited data regarding actual food poisoning cases. According to FSA, the estimated number of people getting ill each year is around 380,000 across the whole UK. 

These numbers are much lower within laboratory-confirmed cases, which in 2019 in the UK was 8,769 and in London was just around 600. Majority of the cases were reported in south London with the highest numbers confirmed in Wandsworth (81), Sutton (70) and Croydon (70). 

The spread of food born illnesses is greater in the second half of the year. With the biggest spike of cases between week 38 and 40. The bacteria and viruses associated with food poisoning favour colder temperatures and more humid weather.

Charts below, give you an opportunity to explore London food poisoning data further.

Even without solid new data, which could confirm the impact the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme has on the food born illnesses, there is a report by Sergio Salis, Nico Jabin and Stephen Morris (NatCen Social Research) from 2015 which shows that just a year after the scheme was introduced, the number of food poisoning cases has dropped.

The correlation is hard to prove as in most cases people become infected at home but also because they are not reporting the sickness to the hospital or GP. Especially if the virus last up to a week time, people tend to wait it out at home. 

Without more accurate numbers of patients diagnosed with food poisoning each year in London, there will not be a full confirmation of correlation between 5,101 poor food hygiene rating establishments and 597 laboratory-confirmed serious cases of food poisoning. 

Yet, Dr Ackerely in her professional opinion discourages eating from places with a rating lower than three, which there are 5,101 in London. 

“Definitely refer form the places with a rating below three, that is the point of following the scheme. We should eat from the places approved by the Food Standard Agency.”

She emphasises the fact that there is such a wide range of food catering establishments, that we should avoid the ones with hygiene issue.   

Also, Food Standard Agency has advice on that matter: “Our advice to people when choosing a restaurant or ordering food online or a takeaway is to check that the business has a food hygiene rating and choose only those with a rating of three or above.”

Antonis Kokkinis, a restaurant manager in one of the London venues said: “Each restaurant I have worked with puts the priority in keeping the highest possible food hygiene standards. However, the ratings are influenced not only by the current state but also risk assessment which might bring it to much lower rung, which can be bad for business.”

“On the other hand, I would not eat in the place with a low rating, just as a precaution,” he added.

By contacting your local GP or hospital when getting sick with food born illness, you can help build the awareness of co-dependency of food hygiene rating and food poisoning.

If you are concern about food hygiene standards in any of establishments, which handle food, you can contact your local council or Food Standard Agency directly, via an online form or email. 

The FSA ensures that relevant organs will be informed about the complaint: “Consumers can use our online platform to report suspected food poisoning, problems with a food hygiene rating, issues with a specific food product, poor food safety and hygiene practices, misleading or incorrect food labelling or any suspicions of wrongdoing by a food business. These reports will be sent over to the business’s local authority who will take appropriate action.”

However, they emphasise on the fact that FSA is not answering to claims regarding quality of the food, customer service, culinary skill, presentation or comfort.

This article was written by Nicole Pihan for purposes of Digital Detectives: Data Journalism module assignment. The ideal news agency to consider the publication of this material would be The Guardian, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, The Times or Evening Standard. I chose these publications as they would allow me to get to the widest audience which would be interested in the subject. At the same time the investigation can be taken further with a proper data team of more than one person and The Guardian, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism or The Times are one of the best data processing news agencies. Evening Standard is mentioned as London's publication.

I believe this article is worth publishing because it has very in-depth research, some less known discoveries, engaging visualisations and potential to growing into a collection of articles with longer research.