ROGUE takeaways and suppliers are still duping customers with fake meats — including “ham” pizzas containing turkey.
testing by the Food Standards Agency uncovered 73 suspect meat and fish products last year.
Takeaways are still duping customers with fake meats such as ‘ham’ pizzas with turkey in them Credit: Natasha Lazaridi
A probe found fish and chip shops selling cheap imported catfish as cod Credit: Getty – Contributor
It is the highest number in the past three years.
Tests on supposed goat meat repeatedly found it was actually sheep meat.
One halal pepperoni beef sample was found to contain 73.2 per cent chicken DNA and 15.1 per cent turkey.
Lamb curry samples contained between 60 and 100 per cent cow DNA.
And with “ham” toppings contained turkey DNA.
The agency did 263 DNA tests on meat and fish products in 2025.
Some 73 contained undeclared species.
In 2024 the figure was 48 and in 2024 it was 14.
A probe found fish and chip shops selling cheap imported catfish as cod.
Dean Cooke, of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, said: “Replacing costly ingredients with less expensive ones is becoming more common.”
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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