Do you know what's in your doner kebab?
UK-wide survey reveals the reality

The results of a UK-wide co-ordinated sampling and analysis programme of doner kebabs have just been released and they make disturbing reading, both for the businesses supplying the kebabs and for consumers. The analysis was carried out on a total of 494 samples, collected from 76 individual councils across the UK and analysed by the public analyst laboratories for meat content, product labelling and nutritional value.

Among the key findings were that, in "the average" doner kebab in pitta bread (but without either spicy sauce or salad), there were:

• almost one and a half times the recommended daily intake of saturated fat;
• at 1,000 calories, half the daily intake for a woman and;
• almost the full daily amount of salt.

As well as these excessively high levels of calories, salt and fat, even more worrying from the labelling aspects of consumer protection is the fact that six of the kebabs tested, which are traditionally made from lamb, were also shown to contain pork and two of these had been claimed to be Halal. The full survey was co-ordinated by LACORS (Local Authority Co-ordinators of Regulatory Services) under its co-ordinated sampling programme, which seeks to make use of the advantages to be gained by comparing results at both regional and national levels. Participation by individual councils is optional and funded from their own sampling budgets and the resultant work of the Public Analyst laboratories. [A summary and the full survey results can be accessed from a link on the LACORS website.]