A NEW report into the data behind food hygiene ratings in south Wales has revealed one of Gwent's local authorities as the area with the worst food hygiene ratings in the country.
According to a new report from Ratcliffe Cleaning Contractors and the Online Marketing Surgery have created the Food Hygiene Report, which helped analyse food hygiene ratings for local authorities in South Wales, Blaenau Gwent is the local authority with the poorest food hygiene ratings
The final rankings and data were based on the amount of industries with the highest and lowest hygiene ratings in South Wales.
According to this data, just 37.9 per cent of Blaenau Gwent's food hygiene ratings were five star graded, compared to the best food hygiene rating local authority in South Wales which was Monmouthshire, which was revealed to have 76.3 per cent of food hygiene ratings at five stars.
This report comes just months after it was revealed that Blaenau Gwent has an average hygiene rating of just 3.91.
Torfaen and Caerphilly also featured in the list for the five local authorities with the lowest food hygiene ratings, with just 51.9 per cent of Torfaen's hygiene ratings being five star, and 54.7 per cent of Caerphilly's ratings making the top mark.
On the other end of the spectrum, topped by Monmouthshire, Newport and the Vale of Glamorgan also featured.
Newport boasts 63 per cent of its establishments with a five star food hygiene rating, while the Vale of Glamorgan has 62.4 per cent of their establishments with a five star food hygiene rating.
The hygiene ratings data was sourced from the UK’s Food Standards Agency's open data portal, where anyone is able to find food hygiene ratings for all establishments of any kind in each local authority in South Wales.
Ratcliffe Cleaning Contractors and the Online Marketing Surgery then filtered out establishments with a food hygiene rating of five and calculated this as a percentage of the total number of rated establishments.
All councils use the food hygiene rating scheme to monitor the level of compliance with regulations in food businesses and to support improvements, and enable, where possible a level playing field for businesses and safe food.
According to multiple councils, the scheme has had a "significant positive impact" on raising hygiene standards since it became mandatory in Wales 11 years ago.
A spokesperson for Blaenau Gwent Council said: "Of the 573-food business that were subject to a rating under the scheme within Blaenau Gwent, 91 per cent were considered to be broadly compliant or better at the time of inspection.
"It’s important to note that not all registered and inspected food business fall within the scope of the scheme.
“Levels of compliance can vary from year to year for many reasons, for example where new businesses set up who may not have established competence and knowledge of the legal requirements, or other factors such as financial, time and other challenges.”
A Torfaen Council spokesman said: “Of the 678 food businesses that were subject to a rating under the scheme within Torfaen, 95 per cent were considered to be broadly compliant or better (a food hygiene rating of three or above) at the time of inspection.
"These figures illustrate an overall strong compliance rate in Torfaen.”
Caerphilly Council did not respond to a request for comment.
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