Brits vow to never eat doner kebab again after ‘revolting’ video exposes truth about how they’re made

You and your mates might have all shared that look agreeing the night is over and it’s time to leave but you know it’s not really done until you’ve made one very important stop.

To see bossman at the takeaway, obviously. Because for many Brits, no night out is complete with a big dirty kebab at the end of it. Those shavings of meat slathered in sauce and packed into soft bread are an essential.

If it’s a treat on the way home from a tough day at work or even a quick lunch, kebabs always seem to be there.

However, people have vowed never to tuck into one again after a ‘revolting’ video exposed the truth about how they’re made.

A YouTube video of Channel 4’s Food Unwrapped took a deep dive into the magical world of the doner kebab.

A Turkish delight, the stacked meat typically spins around slowly in a cone shape behind takeaway counters in most UK cities and towns.

In the clip, 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."

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. Often, doner can be chicken, beef or lamb.

So, Doherty heads to Veli’s Kebabs factory in Staffordshire to find out just what’s in the doner.

Looking at the meat, a factory worker tells him: “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 leftover we get coming in.

It doesn't look the most appealing. (Channel 4)

“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.”

We’re then shown how the kebab is assembled - and it’s not the prettiest.

Big pieces of lamb 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 and then onion powder and salt is added. Thanks to the salt, the kebab can then be cut into those satisfying strips without falling apart.

Some say they've been put off. (Channel 4)

Once all the mixing has been 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.

Unsurprisingly, a lot of viewers have been left grossed out by the video, with one writing: “I never knew that. Never having doner.”

Others called it ‘disgusting’ and said they’ll ‘never eat again’.

However, we can’t imagine everyone will stick to their vow of never having a doner again when it comes to three in the morning on the way home from a night out.

Though one person did write: “If you’re still capable of questioning what’s in it [a doner], you’re not p**sed enough to savour it.”

Topics: Channel 4, YouTube, Food And Drink

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_