EATING establishments in Bradford have the third-lowest hygiene ratings in Yorkshire, a new study has claimed.

Ilkley-based training provider High Speed Training analysed over 230,000 business across the country to create the average ratings for towns, cities and regions.

It found that Bradford scored an average rating of 4.27 out of five stars, which - although considered ‘Good’ under Food Standards Agency guidelines - is still one of the lowest in the county.

Bradford was ranked 13th out of 15 towns and cities in Yorkshire for its average food hygiene rating, only higher than Huddersfield and Halifax, which had average ratings of 4.24 and 4.22 respectively.

The study found that only two premises in Bradford scored a 0 rating, with a respectable 70 per cent of restaurants and cafes – and 63 per cent of all premises as a whole – in the city scoring a 5.

In Yorkshire, Harrogate took top spot – with an average rating of 4.72 – followed by Grimsby and Hull.

Wakefield was ranked 7th and Leeds came 10th.

Nationally, Bradford was joint-51st out of 63 towns and cities analysed in the study, in a list which was topped by Southport in Merseyside, which had an average rating of 4.91.

Ipswich came 2nd, followed by Darlington and Hastings in joint third.

Walsall, Birmingham and Bolton were the bottom three.

As a region, Yorkshire came 7th nationally, with an average score of 4.51.

The top three regions were Northern Ireland, the South West and the East Midlands, while London was the lowest.

Eilidh Paton, Owner of Alba Food Safety Consultancy and Chartered Environmental Health Officer, said: “Takeaways, on average, tend to have a lower rating for a large number of reasons, but mainly it is down to a much larger number of orders per day than say, a B&B would.

“It’s fast food, so the customer expects to get it quickly, leaving less time for staff to focus on cleaning and paperwork.”

Richard Anderson, Head of Learning Development at High Speed Training comments: “As our analysis shows, on a whole, ratings are fairly high across the whole of the UK with every single region in the UK improving their average food hygiene score from 2019.

“There’s definitely more some establishments can do to improve their hygiene rating, firstly ensuring that all relevant staff have up to date food hygiene training and are aware of their specific responsibilities.

It’s then a case of implementing good practices every day to stay on top.”