Millions of customers across Britain may have consumed takeaway kebabs made with goat meat, skin and fat instead of lamb. Investigators have likened the deception to the 2013 horsemeat scandal. Kismet Kebabs, a major doner kebab producer, was fined £500,000 after pleading guilty to food fraud offences that began in 2021. The Essex company supplied takeaways nationwide and is estimated to have earned about £6 million from the misleading sales. The case came to light when Swansea trading standards officers conducted random DNA tests on local doner kebabs in 2020 and 2021. Results showed items labelled as 70 percent lamb contained under 10 percent sheep DNA. The firm had marketed products as containing 50 to 90 percent lamb, with some claiming up to 87 percent. Officer Rhys Harries noted that while buyers expect lower-quality ingredients, the product must match its description. He compared the scale to the horsemeat crisis. A 2021 raid on the Latchingdon factory revealed almost no lamb meat, only lamb fat, along with large quantities of goat, fatty trim, skin and mutton. These materials were minced together and formed into skewers. Some batches received conflicting labels claiming different lamb percentages. Earlier concerns had been raised by other English authorities. The company had received an industry award in 2021. One product advertised as 87 percent lamb was found to be roughly 40 percent fat. Investigators spent 18 months examining records and concluded some recipes contained no lamb at all, using goat, beef fat and chicken drumsticks instead. Swansea Crown Court imposed the fine plus £259,298 in costs. The judge cited prolonged dishonesty. The Food Standards Agency said targeted testing helped expose the fraud but stressed overall UK standards remain high. The firm accepted it had lost focus and has since made major operational changes, later gaining recognised food safety accreditation.
