City's Food Hygiene Rating is best in NI

Out of the 11 council areas, Lisburn and Castlereagh City have the highest percentage rated either good (4) or very good (5); a staggering 94% in total.

The Food Standards Agency website holds the data from inspections carried out by each local authority under the Food Hygiene Ratings Scheme. Every business that serves food is awarded with a hygiene rating between 0 and 5 under the scheme.

Of the 178 restaurants and cafes in Lisburn and Castlereagh City, the percentage with the top rating of 5 is a respectable 76%, and there are no premises witih poor ratings of 0, 1 or 2.

Food establishments are obliged to clearly display the rating that they are given by the local authority following an inspection, and with more and more people paying attention to this scoring system, the rating received by a business can be pivotal to its success.

The study, carried out my LoveMyVouchers.co.uk, found that Antrim and Newtownabbey have the poorest food hygiene ratings overall in Northern Ireland.