Four Ealing restaurants are selling on Just Eat despite getting zero food hygiene ratings in the past year, writes Anna Sagar.

Adilee restaurant, Wonderful Chinese Takeaway, The Wolf Restaurant Bar and Grill and Lahore Spice have an average 4.31 rating on Just Eat, with Adilee Restaurant ranking the highest with 5.1 out of six. 

The Just Eat star ratings are based on the ratings left by customers following an order. Customers score restaurants on food quality, restaurant service and delivery times, and also have the option of leaving a detailed review.Harrow Times: However, recent inspections by the Food Standards Agency found that urgent improvement was necessary.

A zero-food hygiene rating means that urgent improvement is needed in one or more of these areas: hygienic food handling, cleanliness and condition of facilities and food safety management. 

Adilee restaurant employee Adil Shahid said: “We are a brand-new restaurant. Ealing council is holding our hygiene rating as we didn’t have our HACCP certificate. 

“Yesterday I passed my HACCP course. Shortly I will be submitting all the documents to Ealing council to have my 5-star hygiene rating.” 

He also claimed that Just Eat had visited the restaurant. 

The Wolf Restaurant Bar and Grill and Wonderful Chinese said they are now under new management and are waiting for new inspections to take place to more accurately reflect their establishment. 

Lahore Spice’s manager claimed that he has worked in the food industry for 15-20 years and had completed three food hygiene courses. He claimed the only reason they received the zero-food hygiene rating was due to missing temperature records and broken tiles.

He said: “I am writing everything down. What I do on Sundays, when we are doing our deep cleaning. I even defrost the freezer and I will write it down!

“She (food inspector) can come back any time, she didn’t give me a specific time but she can come back any time. This week or next week.” 

Just Eat policy states that restaurants must be FSA registered to be allowed on the platform and that free accredited food hygiene training is available for all restaurants. 

A spokesperson from Just Eat said: “Whenever any potential food safety issues are brought to our attention our restaurant compliance team will review, investigate and liaise with the relevant local authority and Environmental Health Officers as appropriate.”

They also said that the information about food hygiene standards are available on the website, but the FSA is calling on the takeaway giant - to make the food hygiene ratings more obvious. 

Just Eat is one of this year’s most impressive performer on the FTSE 100 - with revenue estimates between £660 and £700m this year, which some analysts have even called ‘conservative’.

In England it is voluntary to display your food hygiene rating, which has led to restaurants with a low hygiene rating not presenting their results. 

The FSA said that it wants a change in regulation, so it is mandatory to display food hygiene ratings for consumer safety. 

Just Eat insist that they take consumer concerns seriously and are launching a trial to display food hygiene ratings on their platform in Northern Ireland, which could then be extended nationwide.
A spokesperson from Ealing Council said that restaurants with a rating of 2 or lower are inspected more frequently and could be subject to closure or legal improvement notices. 
The council has launched a compliance program to further assist non-compliant businesses.

At the time of writing the restaurants we spoke too had not had a repeat visit in the past year and were still serving food to customers.  

For more information please go to http://ratings.food.gov.uk/search-a-local-authority-area/en-GB