Turkey is hoping to guard their country’s most beloved food with the same status as French Champagne with strict new regulations.
The meaty delicacy ranked in the top five of the UK’s favourite takeaways – which should come as no surprise, given at least 5,000 doner shops are estimated to be in England alone.
Turkish officials are now pushing for the name ‘doner kebab’ to be reserved solely for those samples of the dish that conform to strict production methods and serving specifications – after the country reportedly filed a petition for protection under European Union law.
Similar measures are in place to protect the traditional formats of Span’s serrano ham and Italy’s Neapolitan Pizza.
Turkey’s proposal is now subject to a three-month evaluation process, and if successful would result in an ‘EU standard’ on what can and cannot be called a doner kebab.
This would apparently include specifications that the slices of beef and lamb famously included in the dish would need be cut to a thickness of between 3mm and 5mm.
The chicken variety, meanwhile, would need to be cut slightly thinner, between 1mm and 2mm thick.
Traditionally, doner kebabs are produced by marinating the meat in a mixture of pepper, tomato puree, herbs, spices, salt and yoghurt.
The meat is then placed on a vertical skewer that it is turn rotated against a fire, with thin slices pared back from the skewer as it cooks from the outside in.
Once ready, the shavings are often served in bread along with lettuce, sliced tomato and raw onions, with some varieties also including french fries within the sandwich itself.
History of the doner kebab
Doner kebabs have been around for centuries, but became popular in the UK in the 1940s as immigrants from Turkish, Cypriot and Kurdish communities arrived.
The first doner kebab shop opened in London’s Newington Green in 1966 – marking a new era of the British takeaway.
Kebab used to be eaten with rice – but Mahmut Aygun, the inventor of the modern doner kebab, is said to have served the first slices of meat into a flat bread from his Berlin restaurant ‘Hasir’.
The rest was history – the kebab became an easy meal for people to grab and go, and it’s become a highly lauded option for those on late nights out.
According to the Association of Turkish Doner Producers, Europe’s doner kebab economy is thought to be worth an estimated £2,900,000,000 annually.
During the consultation process, other countries will be able to challenge Turkey’s application for protected status.
In this past, this stage has often proven the source of controversy – such as when Italy accused Croatia of plagiarising ‘prosecco’ with its own domestic dessert wine, ‘prosek’.
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