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Food hygiene

Food hygiene in Tower Hamlets by area

In the last month 92 food places across Tower Hamlets were given a hygiene score, and 80% of them got the top mark of 5. Over three months, 51 places scored 2 or below, and 174 food places are waiting for their first inspection.

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92hygiene scoreslast 31 days
80%scored 574 places, last 31 days
51scored 0 to 2last 3 months
174waiting for a first inspectionusually new or under new owners

Darker means more hygiene scores published. Tap an area for its page.

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Most inspected this month: Spitalfields (39), Whitechapel (31) and Canary Wharf (30). The middle Tower Hamlets area had 9. Over three months, the highest share of 5s among areas with at least five scores was in Old Ford (89%), Bow (88%) and Poplar (76%).

Every area, ranked

1SpitalfieldsE13915359%2294
2WhitechapelE13113051%2866
3Canary WharfE14307073%738
4PoplarE14276276%722
5BlackwallE14235765%822
6Bethnal GreenE2206252%1343
7Isle of DogsE14205573%433
8Mile EndE3113370%39
9Old FordE3102889%02
10BowE392488%06
11St. George in the EastE186344%1616
12WappingE1W83653%79
13StepneyE163155%717
14Bromley-by-BowE361872%25
15ShadwellE1W52665%69
16LimehouseE1441953%76
17RatcliffeE131753%77
18MillwallE1431164%224
19Cubitt TownE1421362%17

“Last month” and “3 months” count the hygiene scores published within each area’s circle. “Scored 5” is the share of the last three months’ scores that were a 5; it needs at least three. “Waiting” is food places registered but not yet inspected. Areas overlap, so one place can count in more than one. Tap a column to sort.

Scored 0 to 2 in the last three months

A score shows how things were on the day of the inspection. Businesses can appeal, and can ask for a new inspection once they have made improvements, so check the Food Standards Agency’s page for the latest.

Top marks this month

74 places scored 5 in the last 31 days; the latest 20 are shown.

New food places

174 food places across Tower Hamlets are registered with their council and waiting for a first hygiene inspection, the most near Spitalfields (94), Whitechapel (66), Bethnal Green (43), Canary Wharf (38) and Isle of Dogs (33). They are usually new businesses or ones under new owners, and each area’s page lists them.

By kind of business

Restaurants and cafés13559%21
Shops4057%8
Takeaways and sandwich shops3850%5
Other caterers2770%3
Pubs, bars and clubs1560%4
Care homes and nurseries1479%1
Schools and colleges1164%4
Food makers and packers650%2
Supermarkets6100%0
Distributors650%1
Mobile caterers560%1
Hotels and B&Bs367%1

Tower Hamlets, last three months. The share scoring 5 needs at least three scores.

How food hygiene ratings work

Every place that serves, sells or makes food is inspected by its council’s food safety officers, and the Food Standards Agency publishes the score. Officers look at how food is handled and stored, the state of the building and its cleaning, and how the business manages food safety. The score runs from 0 to 5:

  • 5: very good
  • 4: good
  • 3: generally satisfactory
  • 2: improvement necessary
  • 1: major improvement necessary
  • 0: urgent improvement necessary

How often a place is inspected depends on the risk, so a busy kitchen is visited more often than a shop selling packaged food. New businesses wait for a first visit before they get a score.

Where the figures come from

Scores come from the Food Standards Agency’s food hygiene rating data, published under the Open Government Licence, for every council we cover. Figures for Tower Hamlets as a whole count the food places whose nearest area is in Tower Hamlets. Each area is a circle round its middle, the same as on its MeBabber page. A score appears here when the agency publishes it, which can be a few weeks after the inspection.

See our sources and their licences. Figures update every night.

Food hygiene in every area

Questions people ask

Which areas of Tower Hamlets had the most food hygiene inspections?

Over the last month, the most hygiene scores were published for Spitalfields (39), Whitechapel (31), Canary Wharf (30), Poplar (27) and Blackwall (23). The middle Tower Hamlets area had 9.

How many Tower Hamlets food places score 5 for hygiene?

Of the 306 food places in Tower Hamlets given a score in the last three months, 184 (60%) got the top mark of 5, meaning hygiene is very good.

Have any Tower Hamlets food places scored 0, 1 or 2 recently?

Yes. In the last three months 51 places in Tower Hamlets were given 2 or below: 6 scored 0, 26 scored 1 and 19 scored 2. Each is listed on this page with its date. A low score shows how things were on the day of the inspection.

What do food hygiene ratings mean?

Food Standards Agency scores run from 0 to 5: 5 is very good, 4 good, 3 generally satisfactory, 2 improvement necessary, 1 major improvement necessary and 0 urgent improvement necessary. Council officers give the score after an inspection of hygiene, the building and how food safety is managed.