People 'scared' after discovering what doner kebabs are actually made of

19 September 2023 , 11:50

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Jimmy Doherty teamed up with a forensic scientist to discover what is really in a doner kebab (Image: Getty Images)

The kebab has become something of a tradition for Brits as they head home after a night out. But do you really know what you’re actually eating? For example, a doner kebab should be made from lamb - but is that always the case?

In an episode of Food Unwrapped, TV presenter and farmer Jimmy Doherty paid for kebabs from nine different takeaways and delivered them to forensic scientist Paul Hancock to find out what was really in them. And the results were surprising.

The dishes were tested to determine what kind of meat they had been made from and whether they contained beef, chicken or pork – or more extremely horse, donkey or goat.

And Jimmy was visibly shocked to learn that only one of the nine kebabs was made from 100% lamb. "Most of them contain chicken,” Paul told him. "We've also got a couple which contain beef. Fortunately, we found no goat, no donkey, and no horse in any of the products."

Asked what he would expect to see with a larger sample size - around 900 kebabs - Paul estimated that he would see around a 60% failure rate. Viewers were quick to share their thoughts.

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"So just like fast food burgers, it's mystery meat," one commented on YouTube, while a second echoed: "Question should be, what is not in a doner kebab?!" A third wrote: "Noticed how 10% was called bulk…"

And a fourth claimed: "Scary. What is really sad is that only one store out of nine used lamb. And as far as I know, none of the takeaways in the UK ever have food sent to be tested (it should be randomly done) which means there will be shops out there putting cat, dog possibly even rat in to them. If they can get away with it and it costs them nothing, they will do it!"

Not everyone was put off, however. "I love a doner kebab," one viewer wrote. “"I even eat it sober. It's bloody delicious! My issue is finding a decent chilli sauce seems to be an issue these days!" Another second noted: "I don't care what it is made of - as long as all the ingredients are honestly listed so I can make an informed choice."

A third advised: "If you want 100% of a specific meat either chicken or lamb doner then only go to a restaurant that serves Yaprak Doner. It translates as leaf doner, the cut gives you smaller pieces instead of the long strip of meat but you are guaranteed the meat you want as it's made in-house.

"They basically stack thin, leafs of meat over each other a bit like how they do in this documentary but here it was more blobs of meat they compress to form the industrial doners. Anyway, contrary to popular belief, doner is actually a Kurdish invention, throwing that trivia out there in case it pops up as an entry question at the gates of heaven!"

Gemma Strong