Investigation finds what doner kebab sold in takeaways is made from

Just like the shepherds followed the star, club-goers have their own lights they’re drawn to after a night out.

Well, it’s practically part of the night out, a highlight to be honest - the lights of the takeaway.

You and your mates bundle into the shop and string together an order for boss man; a big dirty kebab, obviously.

Lashings of meat are soaking in sauce and wrapped up in a duvet of bread. You’re convinced this will banish any chance of a hangover in the morning despite the countless pints you sank beforehand.

Drunk you might believe there’s nothing that could ever stop your kebab fix.

But sober you might see just how those shavings of meat are made and potentially be put off for life. Potentially.

An investigation by Channel 4’s Food Unwrapped took to Veli’s Kebabs factory in Staffordshire to see just how the doner kebab is actually made.

Channel 4

A Turkish delight - that probably doesn’t exist in Narnia - the meat is typically stacked up on a vertical rotisserie in a cone shape behind takeaway counters in most UK cities and towns.

Presenter Jimmy Doherty snacks on a freshly made doner kebab and says: “Now look at this doner kebab - I want to find out what meat is in it because you can't really tell - it's just shavings. Quite bready. I don't know."

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He then chats with the shop owner who says his meat is lamb, but he wouldn’t be able to say what everyone else uses.

Looking at meat in the factory, a worker explains: “This has come off one of the big supermarkets. They trim the meat up, they get it aesthetically pleasing for the customer, and the trim that gets left over we get coming in.

“If [the meat] is labelled up as doner, which everybody associates with what's on a spit, it should be 100 percent lamb.

"There are companies out there that are labelling up kebabs and they're containing beef and chicken - and there have been some instances of pork, which, for the Muslim community, is a big no-no.”

Channel 4

We then see the kebab being made – and it’s not so pretty.

Big lamb pieces are shoved into a machine and diced before being pushed up into another machine where more ingredients are added.

Textured soya protein is used to keep prices low by bulking out the mix, then onion powder and salt are added.

The salt means the kebab mix can be cut into satisfying strips without falling apart.

Once all the mixing’s done, the ‘doner’ is 85 percent lamb, five percent bulking agent, 5 percent rusk and 5 percent seasoning.

Then it's moulded into thick circles to be stacked up onto a 'spit'. Oh, and there's a sheet of lamb skin in between each one. Nice.

Unsurprisingly, a lot of viewers are quite grossed out by the video, writing: “I never knew that. Never having doner.”

Others claim they’ll ‘never eat it again’.

However, we can’t imagine everyone will stick to their vow of never having a doner again when they’re stumbling home from a night out.

Topics: Food And Drink, YouTube

Jess Battison

Jess is an Entertainment Journalist with a love of all things pop culture. Her main interests include keeping up with the Twitter girlies, waiting for a new series of The Traitors and losing her voice at a Beyoncé concert. She graduated with a first in Journalism from City, University of London in 2021 and has previously worked at MyLondon.

@jessbattison_