Most people are expect to see a five-star food hygiene rating stuck to the door of the restaurant where they are eating.

It is one of the few rankings for an eatery where people will not expect lower than full marks - while the flavour is a matter of opinion, hygiene is not.

This means that when a place is handed a four, we can wonder what it was that docked that one mark.

When a restaurant is docked 5 marks, giving it a 0, we probably do not want to wonder too much about the cause.

In Swindon, restaurants have been given low ratings for anything from rats, cockroaches, poor structural compliance and not keeping good records.

Eateries are judged on their handling of food, physical condition and hygiene management.

If a place is so unsafe as to present a risk to public health, council inspectors can serve a Hygiene Emergency Prohibition, forcing the establishment to close.

(Image: Ratcliffe Cleaning Contractors/Online Marketing Surgery)

This can then be extended by court order, keeping places shut until they improve.

Ratcliffe Cleaning Contractors and Online Marketing Surgery have have analysed Swindon and the borough’s villages to rank them by their hygiene ratings.

They then converted them into percentages of all ratings to give an idea of how clean that area’s establishments are.