Waltham Forest is the most unhygienic London borough in which to eat, new research has revealed.

The north east London borough topped the list after professional kitchen suppliers Maxima Kitchen Equipment analysed thousands of Food Hygiene Ratings from the Food Standards Agency.

The study included more than 62,000 businesses across 32 London boroughs where people can eat out or shop for food, including restaurants, pubs, cafes, takeaways, food vans, canteens and supermarkets.

Waltham Forest tops the list as London’s least hygienic borough for food as 13.2% of its businesses received a rating of 2, meaning some improvement is necessary, 1 which means major improvement is necessary, or 0 which indicates urgent improvement is required.

The borough had the highest number of businesses which received the lowest rating possible, with 69 scoring 0.

Newham is London’s second least hygienic borough when it comes to food, with 11.8% of businesses requiring at least some improvement in their handling and preparation of food.

The third least hygienic London borough is Ealing, where 10.8% of businesses received a rating of 2 or below from the Food Standards Agency.

Kensington and Chelsea ranked as the cleanest borough for food, with 82.2% of its businesses receiving the highest possible rating of 5, which means hygiene standards are very good. Just 15 businesses in the borough had a rating of 2 or lower, meaning only 0.93% of them needed improvement.

The City of London was behind Kensington and Chelsea with the second highest percentage of 5 ratings, with 81.5% of food businesses in the City receiving the highest score.

The third cleanest borough is Greenwich, where just over three quarters of businesses (76%) have a 5 rating.

Overall, more than six in ten of the London food businesses included in the study – 38,517 out of 62,079 – received the top Food Hygiene Rating rating of 5.

Islington is the only borough in the study where fewer than half of the food businesses have the highest rating, with 46.8% scoring 5.

Commenting on the study, a spokesperson for Maxima Kitchen Equipment said: “There are an estimated 2.4 million cases of foodborne illness every year in the UK, so hygiene is a crucial factor when considering where to eat or shop for food. In London, the majority of businesses are well rated when it comes to hygiene, but some areas definitely have room for improvement.”

The research was carried out by Maxima Kitchen Equipment, which has more than 40 years of experience in the supply and maintenance of professional kitchen equipment.