Forum Topic

Ealing is one of the worst boroughs in the UK for food hygiene

http://www.ealingtoday.co.uk/default.asp?section=community&spage=common/eafoodhygiene001.htmWhat an absolute disgrace this is. There is however some good advice at the end of this article:"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 ... if a business is not displaying its window sticker, to be curious about why that might be.“Why do they not make it compulsory for all businesses to display these stickers? I think we would see a lot of these businesses cleaning up their acts if there was compulsory display.

Paul Martin ● 3385d7 Comments

As I said - look at the detail of the score and if food hygiene specifically scores low then maybe best to avoid. The examples I am aware of concern cases where the restaurant adheres to very high standards in the kitchen but falls down on record keeping and compliance. Ealing has a lot of independent restaurants compared to other parts of the country and the owner/manager is unlikely to be an expert in every part of his or her business whereas a chain will probably have in house expertise. I would always tend to trust hygiene at a restaurant where I know the owner will be on hand to keep up standards whether there were inspections or not rather than a chain where staff are changing all the time and have no long term commitment to the business.

Andy Jones ● 3380d

All well and good but some of the zeros and one's round my way are owned and operated by people with a VERY good understanding of English, i.e. they've been speaking it all their lives as their first language...

Paul James ● 3381d

I must say I have been somewhat confused/surprised when certain restaurants have been "awarded", say, 1 out of 5, but looking at the detail the food hygiene and cleanliness  has been good but the paperwork has been lacking.Box ticking or what?

Philip Coe ● 3381d

'I presume this figure wasn't arrived at by averaging it out per population say'It is based on a percentage of establishments with poor ratings so the large number of places to eat isn't material.Can't understand Greg Stafford's logic that the high proportion of low ratings show that the Council is failing residents. It is not the inspectors fault that restaurants are not scoring well unless he is suggesting they are unduly harsh.The most likely explanation is the large number of restaurants owned and operated by people for whom English is a second language. Although chains can have problems as the item on the front page about GBK shows, most of the places scoring lowly are smaller independent businesses. The chains will generally have in house compliance expertise to help ensure they do well.There are a couple of local restaurants I still quite happily visit even though they have a low score. It should be remembered that if a restaurant is completely unsanitary then it would be closed straightaway. A low score can be gained due to poor record keeping or not filling forms in correctly which is a bigger challenge for people not 100% comfortable with English. It is important to look at the detail of these scores for which food hygiene is only one part. If a restaurant you like gets a low score check the details and if it does okay on food hygiene and badly on compliance you should carry on eating there without any concerns.

Andy Jones ● 3381d

Also, Ealing has a LOT of places to eat. I presume this figure wasn't arrived at by averaging it out per population say...

Paul James ● 3385d

I think there is probably an element of truth in that Fred.  Akin to Northants police force that used to have, maybe still do, a high level of drink driving prosecutions over Christmas periods largely due to their Commander highlighting this as priority activity.

Philip Coe ● 3385d

Or is LBE one of the best at detecting and enforcing food hygiene?

Fred Hunt ● 3385d