Grubby grub: Top 10 filthiest UK cities to eat in (and especially dirty postcodes)

• Birmingham is the dirtiest city in the UK for eating out
• There is a 2 in 5 chance of getting unsanitary food in Norwich, Bath, Swansea, Salford and Birmingham
• The cleanest cities to eat in are Lincoln, Wrexham and Colchester
• London is #9 filthiest UK city to eat in, with a 1 in 3 chance of less-than-ideal food standards
• Hygiene scores are sometimes reviewed only once every few years, with consumers encouraged to be cautious

Birmingham is the filthiest UK city to eat in. Visitors have a two in five chance of getting unsanitary food here. The odds are just as bad in Norwich, Salford and Swansea. On the other hand, food establishments in Lincoln, Wrexham and Colchester excel at cleanliness.

This is according to a new study from NoDepositDaily.com – a no-deposit casino bonus guide. The researchers analysed the hygiene scores of 280,659 food businesses across 346 local authorities in the UK, as measured most recently by the Food Standards Agency. This includes inspected restaurants, cafes, pubs, bars, sandwich shops, takeaways, canteens and nightclubs, scored on a scale of 0 (lowest) to 5 (highest). The study ranked all UK cities by their average hygiene scores and also grouped the food businesses within them by postcode to identify the dirtiest ones in each city.

Birmingham

Birmingham serves the grubbiest grub in the country, according to the study. It has the lowest average score of all UK cities, estimated at 4.15. Of the 3,851 analysed food establishments, only 58.5% have a score of 5. This means that two in five inspected food businesses in Birmingham have not reached all the hygiene standards required by law. The postcodes with the lowest food hygiene scores in Birmingham are B19, B21 and B8, where only 37.4%, 37.5% and 38% of food businesses fully comply with the law. The cleanest postcodes to dine in in Birmingham are B43, B35 and B72.

Salford

The second dirtiest city for eating out in the UK is Salford, with an average hygiene score of 4.30. Out of the 1,021 inspected food businesses in Salford, 59.16% have been rated as meeting all the legal hygiene requirements. The postcodes with the lowest average hygiene scores in Salford are M8, M7 and M60, although the former only has two food establishments, and the latter - only one. Only half the inspected food businesses in the M7 area have met all the legal requirements. Salford’s safest postcodes to dine in are M50, M28 and M3.

Bath

Bath is home to the third most unhygienic food services in the country, among all the cities in the UK. The 533 food businesses inspected so far in this otherwise elegant Georgian city have an average score of 4.32. Two in five of them still do not fulfil all the legal hygiene requirements. As it is a relatively small city with just two postcodes, the difference between them is negligible, with BA1 being slightly less sanitary than BA2.

Liverpool

Liverpool is the fourth filthiest city in the UK to eat in. It has an average hygiene score of 4.33, and only 65.89% of the 2,287 evaluated food establishments here have fully passed the requirements by law. L27, L10 and L6 have the lowest hygiene scores in Liverpool, while L67, L69, L70 – though only home to a handful of food establishments – all have perfect scores.

Manchester

The fifth dirtiest UK city for food services is Manchester. Its 2,947 food businesses inspected so far average to a score of 4.38 for hygiene, with around a third still lagging behind on fulfilling all the legal requirements. The postcodes that are especially bad at keeping up with cleanliness are M14, M18 and M40. Meanwhile, in M90, where Manchester Airport is located, all the food is served in 100% sanitary conditions. M2 and M3 have almost perfect scores.

Top 10 filthiest UK cities to eat in

The average hygiene score across all 280,659 studied food businesses in the UK is 4.57, with 73.35% of them fully compliant with all the legal standards. Swansea, Leicester, Southend-On-Sea, Greater London and Norwich are among the top 10 filthiest UK cities to eat in. Meanwhile, Lincoln is the highest-ranked city for food hygiene, followed by Wrexham and Colchester.

Greater London is the ninth filthiest UK city to eat in. Home to 126,699 inspected food businesses across 33 local authorities, Greater London scored 4.41 for hygiene. The chances of consuming food prepared in less-than-perfect conditions is one in three here. The worst postcodes across the whole of Greater London are UB2 in Ealing, UB9 in Hillingdon and E10 in Waltham Forest. The cleanest eateries in London are located in SE9 (Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Lewisham), W3 (Ealing, Brent, Hammersmith and Fulham, Hounslow), and W10 (Kensington and Chelsea, Brent, Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham).

Mervin Davids from NoDepositDaily.com commented on the findings: “Local authorities inspect food establishments every six months to a few years, depending on how much risk they pose. Not all businesses display their hygiene score, except for those in Wales and Northern Ireland, where this is required by law.

“If you have experienced food poisoning, found foreign objects in your food, purchased an expired meal, noticed unsanitary premises or the allergen information was unavailable or incorrect, you can contact the local council that business belongs to. They will then decide the right course of action so that other customers are safe.”

The Food Standards Agency defines a score of 0 as meaning that “urgent improvement is required”. A score of 5 implies that “the hygiene standards are very good and fully comply with the law”, which “all businesses should be able to achieve”. Poorly rated businesses have a deadline to abide by to make the improvements required by the food safety officer. Failing that could result in shutting the business down until it is safe for consumers.

NoDepositDaily is an online guide for no-deposit casino bonuses that promotes safe, expert-tested and law-compliant terms and conditions.

Tomorrow's Business is brought to you by Roxhill Media