Pret A Manger has been named London’s most hygienic high street food chain – with fast food restaurants McDonald’s and Nando’s coming close behind.
The sandwich giant is the only major chain in the capital to have a five-star food safety rating for more than 90 per cent of its 194 branches.
McDonald’s, Starbucks, Greggs and Nando’s filled out the top five having all received top cleanliness ratings for more than 80 per cent of their branches.
The new figures released by the Food Standards Agency on Tuesday showed that the top 20 major restaurant chains have remarkably few low-scoring restaurants in London, with standards improving across the board.
Just over 94 per cent of their outlets – some 2,385 in total – received the top ratings of four or five after their most recent hygiene inspections, while 98 per cent gained at least a three.
Domino’s Pizza, which has 90 outlets in the capital, was the only one to have a zero-rated outlet – although it fared well on other measures with more than 80 per cent of its 112 branches rated a five.
Jonathan Perkins, Pret A Manger’s head of safety, said: “When working with such large quantities of fresh ingredients, stringent food hygiene practices aren’t just important, they’re essential.
“We’re proud and committed to seeing our shops achieve top hygiene ratings time after time.”
Catriona Stewart, who heads up the FSA's Food Hygiene Ratings Scheme, said: "We have seen standards improve and more and more businesses are able to show their customers that they take food hygiene seriously."
The top 10
Restaurant - Number of branches - % with hygiene rating of five
Pret A Manger - 177 - 91.2%
McDonald’s - 153 - 86.9%
Starbucks - 188 - 85.1%
Greggs - 152 - 83.5%
Nando’s - 83 - 81.4%
JD Wetherspoons - 109 - 80.7%
Domino’s Pizza - 90 - 80.4%
Burger King - 48 - 78.7%
FSA tested the top 20 chains based on the number of outlets across England.
