More than 80 venues in the Lewisham borough that serve, sell or make food have been told their hygiene needs major improvement in the past year.

Our gallery above highlights the 86 places that in the last 12 months have been awarded just one star or the lowest possible score of zero stars under the government’s food hygiene rating scheme.

The ratings have been given to food businesses to reflect the standards of hygiene found when they were inspected by officers from the local authority.

One star signifies major improvement needed while in the nine cases of zero stars the issues were so serious that it was felt urgent improvement was necessary.

Among the eateries given low scores since last September are restaurants, takeaways, butchers, convenience stores and even a nursery.

In awarding the scores, inspectors checked the following three elements:

1. How hygienically the food is handled – how it is prepared, cooked, re-heated, cooled and stored

2. The condition of the structure of the buildings – the cleanliness, layout, lighting, ventilation and other facilities

3. How the business manages what it does to make sure food is safe and so that the officer can be confident standards will be maintained in the future

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It is possible some of the businesses featured above are awaiting new inspections, have changed management since being inspected or have closed in the interim.

If any business owner wishes to post a response explaining their low rating, they can email us and we will update this page with their comments.

All the information contained in this article and included in our gallery above is publicly available on the Food Standards Agency website.

Images used are from the FSA website or Google Street View.