The government is considering making food hygiene displays mandatory after a special investigation.

Reporters from the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) went to Maidstone on behalf of KentOnline to see whether businesses were displaying the correct ratings.

Of 22 eateries in the town centre, which got a 3/5 rating or lower, 19 were showing no rating at all or the wrong one.

Now one of the county’s MPs has got involved - saying the government needs to take action across the entire country.

As previously reported, businesses which serve food to the public are regularly inspected by local authorities and given hygiene ratings to show their compliance, with rules on food safety, storage, and management.

These can be found on the Food Standards Agency (FSA) website.

At the time, Gavin Lewis, of Lewis’s Fish & Grill described the practice of displaying the wrong rating as “outrageous”.

His venue, which he runs with his brother, has consistently been rated as five stars.

“It’s really important to give customers confidence in what they’re eating and to make sure they come back again and again,” he told the LDRS.

“It should absolutely be mandatory to display the right food hygiene rating.

“For people to display a wrong rating, it actually devalues the rating of having five stars.”

Labour MP for Chatham and Aylesford, Tris Osborne, is calling on the government to introduce mandatory display rules in England - which already exist in Northern Ireland and Wales.

He said: “I was surprised and a bit shocked actually.

“As a user of takeaways around Medway, and many of my friends and residents around here do as well – they come to trust these FSA ratings out of five and they assume that these displays that are on restaurants, if they are present, are accurate and reflective of actual assessments done by authorities.

“I’ve asked through public written questions in Parliament to challenge that and see if we can get some equity across the country - which I think is only fair for all restaurant owners.

“Some of them are displaying inaccurate information which means their food is not perhaps as safe as they’re saying it is.

“There’s a responsibility to the public to ensure there are robust standards around food quality.”

Andrew Gwynne, under-secretary of state for public health, said in response to Mr Osborne’s questions: “We will consider whether the mandatory display of ratings should be introduced in England in due course.

“In the meantime, the FSA is working with its local authority partners to maintain and improve the impact and benefits of this highly successful public health scheme.”