Millions of takeaway doner kebab lovers who thought they were eating lamb may actually have been consuming goat, skin and fat – a fraud so vast it has been compared to the horsemeat scandal.
Kismet Kebabs, one of the UK's largest doner kebab makers, has been fined £500,000 after admitting to the deception, which the company said related to “historical events” under a “different leadership structure”. The Essex-based firm is estimated to have made £6m from the fraud.
“Kismet Kebabs fined £500k for selling 'lamb' kebabs containing goat, skin and fat.”
The truth began to emerge when trading standards officers in Swansea started randomly DNA testing doner meat from takeaways in the city in 2020 and 2021. Kebabs advertised as containing 70% lamb came back with results showing “less than 10% sheep”.
“I think some customers won't be surprised there's a lot of skin and fat in these products – but I don't think many people will be expecting goat,” said Rhys Harries, a Swansea trading standards officer.
When investigators raided the Kismet factory in Latchingdon, near Chelmsford, in May 2021, they quickly saw why. “We didn't see any lamb apart from lamb fat,” Harries said. “There were pallets of goat, pallets of trim, offcuts with high fat content, boxes of fat, boxes of skin, bits of mutton. It all goes into a massive mincer and comes out looking like Play-Doh.”
The company, which produces more than 100 tonnes of kebab varieties every week, had labelled its lamb doner kebabs as containing up to 87% lamb – depending on the product. Instead, they were mostly goat, skin and fat.
Harries compared the case to the 2013 horsemeat scandal, one of the most high-profile food fraud crises in recent history, when DNA testing revealed horsemeat in beef products across Europe. “It's almost the same as the horsemeat scandal, because of the volume of product that was going out of this factory,” he said.
“A consumer buying a kebab knows it's probably not the best quality ingredients, but it's still got to be what it says it is,” Harries added.
The fine, handed down after the company admitted one count of fraud by false representation, comes as a warning to the food industry – but for the millions who have eaten these kebabs, the question remains: what was really in that late-night takeaway?