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Almost 17,000 businesses in London serving or selling food could lose nearly half of their customers due to new legislation forcing them to display their hygiene ratings , it has been claimed.

According to the NFU Mutual Food Hygiene Ratings report, 44% of people would turn away from their favorite place to eat if it had a rating of less than four out of five.

There are currently 16,758 businesses in the capital with a rating of three or less, Food Standards Agency said, which could therefore be affected.

The new legislation is set to come in by 2019 in England, meaning any outlet which serves or sells food must display their rating in a place such as the front door or window.

poll loading Would you turn away from your favorite place to eat if it had a food hygiene rating of less than four? 0+ VOTES SO FAR YES NO

Statistics from Food Standards Agency as of January 16

Local authority Number of businesses Three rating and below Percentage of three and below Brent 1,973 721 36.54% Ealing 2,595 729 28.09% Harrow 1,245 512 41.12% Hillingdon 1,877 448 23.87% Hounslow 1,600 393 24.56% Kensington and Chelsea 1,698 262 15.43% Westminster 4,410 1,095 24.83%

London is home to 74% of businesses which serve or sell food with a food hygiene rating of four or five.

Darren Seward, hospitality sector specialist at NFU Mutual, said: " It’s fantastic to see that 74% of food outlets in London have a rating of good or very good and the industry as a whole is taking real pride in food hygiene, but imminent compulsory displays are destined to be a game changer for those businesses struggling to reach the top grades.

"Our report shows that when it comes to food safety customers have naturally high standards and that a 'good' score can no longer be seen as an aspiration but a minimum benchmark.

"Hopefully, any future legislation will drive excellence in food safety and it’s important that businesses don’t forget that the ratings are there to keep people safe as well as to uphold their place in a competitive market."

NFU Mutual also found that 88% of customers were in favour of a compulsory display of rating stickers at businesses serving or selling food.

Last month, we reported that Ealing has the second highest amount of restaurants and cafés with poor food hygiene ratings in the country, a new study shows.

Information taken from Food Standards Agency (FSA) shows that 28.2% of restaurants and cafés in Ealing were rated between 0 and 2, reports Love My Vouchers .

The figure makes it the second highest out of council districts in the UK, excluding Scotland, putting it behind Birmingham.

The latest figures show that for ratings of three or under, Westminster has highest in west London with 1,095, yet the borough has the highest number of businesses.

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