FEWER than half of takeaways, restaurants and cafes in Bradford are displaying their food hygiene ratings, spot-checks by environmental health workers have found.

Bradford Council's food safety team dropped into 260 of the district's food businesses, but found only 116 were displaying their 'scores on the doors' star-rating in a prominent place for customers to see.

The businesses visited, which included some in Bradford city centre and Ilkley town centre, all had ratings of three stars or more.

Environmental health workers persuaded a further 48 firms to put up their official stickers, which show how well they fared in the national five-star Food Hygiene Rating Scheme.

But now they are calling on more of the district's 3,396 food businesses to follow suit.

Councillor Arshad Hussain, Bradford Council's portfolio holder for community safety, said customers who do not see a rating could assume a business has scored badly.

He said: "More and more customers are looking for a food hygiene rating sticker before eating out or purchasing from a business.

"Food businesses work hard to achieve a good rating, so we encourage them to share their success by displaying their score.

"If they don't display a sticker, the public might assume they have a poor score.

"If anyone can't see a sticker displayed, they can ask the staff what their score is."

Currently in Bradford, more than 60 per cent of businesses have the top score of five stars and only 0.2 per cent are zero-rated.

The rating scheme is run by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and was adopted by Bradford Council in 2012.

All ratings are available to view on the FSA's website, food.gov.uk.

Businesses are also given distinctive green and black window stickers showing their score, but displaying these is optional.

In contrast, in Wales it is now compulsory for all food companies to display their scores, and Northern Ireland is also expected to follow suit from next October.

The FSA is pushing for similar rules in England, and plans to put the case to Government early next year.

But in the meantime, it is funding local authorities to persuade more firms to voluntarily display their scores.

A spokesman for the FSA said: "The FSA is funding local authorities to work with businesses to highlight the benefits of the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme to their customers.

"By displaying the distinctive green and black Food Hygiene Rating Scheme sticker they can show they are taking food hygiene seriously.

"Bradford is one of 50 local authorities to receive funding in a second phase of this programme.

"The aim is that with increasing numbers of stickers on display, people are more likely to draw their own conclusions when they do not see a rating and vote with their feet, by avoiding places with lower scores."