FOR 15 years Barrow's popular theatre venue has sustained the highest hygiene ratings alongside hundreds of other well established eateries and food establishments.

Following the latest statistics from the Food Standards Agency, 48 food establishments in Barrow struggled to receive the top scores for their food hygiene ratings, but there are hundreds more who have.

Of the many who received a score of five, meaning excellent, this included: The Forum, The Owl and The Pussycat, The Townhouse, The Lounge Cloud 9 and the Hospital cafe.

Bosses of some of these establishments have shared some of the reasons behind their success.

Cheryl Johnston, assistant manager at The Forum's cafe said: "We are apart of Elior catering company who have strict standards and procedures in place that we have to follow, which has been key in helping us to sustain such high levels of cleanliness.

"Our head chef Amanda Repton, who has been here for 15 years, has said we have been able to maintain our five score rating for as long as she has been here and since the rating scheme actually came in.

"We have also recently had an internal audit that saw us score 96 and 98 per cent for food safety and hygiene."

Other bosses such as Gawain Steel, operations manager for the Lucidity Group, the company behind Barrow's The Townhouse, said: "Our executive head chef Matt Williams has been key to ensuring that our standards of food safety and hygiene are kept to the highest level.

"Staff training has also been key to making sure our standards are met by all our staff."

The Lucidity Group is also behind The Dunes Hotel in Barrow who scored a three for their latest food safety inspection.

Mr Steel said: "We are a little frustrated about that score as inspections tend to take place at the busiest times of year when the kitchens are fully operational and very busy.

"However, since our latest score we have fully refurbished the kitchen in The Dunes Hotel and we are expecting another top score at our next inspection."

Angie Chester, general manager at The Owl and The Pussycat, said: "We are a part of Greene King who have daily procedures in place that we follow.

"These have been key to us sustaining a five star rating for food hygiene." Greene King is one of the UK's largest pub retailer and brewer.

Barrow Borough Council have in total inspected 534 food serving premises ranking them between zero and five for their cleanliness.

All are rated by the council before the information is passed on to the Food Standards Agency.