Seven in ten lamb kebabs adulterated with cheaper meats: Probe reveals takeaways are bulked out with beef and chicken Out of ten doner kebab samples, only three were 100 per cent lamb A 10kg bag of lamb kebab meat costs about £35 whereas the same pack of lamb with beef or chicken costs about £22 Traders who mislead their customers can face fines of up to £5,000 By Valerie Elliott More than two-thirds of the lamb kebabs sold in British takeaways are bulked up with cheaper meats, a Mail on Sunday investigation has discovered. After hearing of our results, the Food Standards Agency called for legal action against shops that deliberately misled customers about the contents of their kebab. Of ten samples we brought in London, the Home Counties and the West Midlands, only three were 100 per cent lamb. The seven others contained cheaper beef or chicken - or in one case, both. Fowl play: This fast-food shop sold kebabs containing chicken. It was one of seven out of ten takeaways tested found to be bulking up its kebabs with cheaper meats In each sample the levels were high enough to suggest a deliberate "incorporation" of the less expensive cuts, rather than a trace contamination. The results are likely to concern consumers in the wake of the horsemeat scandal. Yesterday, horsemeat was found in a kebab sold in Austria, although no British kebab shops have yet been implicated. What's in it? A Mail on Sunday reporter with a sample from the doner kebab meat investigation Businesses can make substantial savings if they use cut-price meat. A 10kg bag of lamb kebab meat costs about £35 wholesale, whereas the same pack of lamb with beef or chicken costs about £22. Traders who mislead their customers can face fines of up to £5,000 - although such high penalties are rare. When confronted with the results of our investigation, the kebab shops reacted with anger and insisted they would be contacting their suppliers. One suggested that the beef DNA had come from the yogurt used in a marinade. Andy Foster, policy director at the Trading Standards Institute, said: "I would expect a doner kebab to be made from lamb or mutton and most consumers would expect that. If there is different meat in a doner kebab and people are not told, then that is misleading consumers. There are always opportunities for people to cut corners and choose cheaper supplies. At each of the ten outlets our reporter asked for a small lamb doner kebab. The price varied from £3 to £4.10, and none of the stores suggested there might be other meat in their takeaways. The samples were analysed by Worcestershire Scientific Services, one of the seven official Government control laboratories accredited for such DNA testing. Results showed that only three stores sold kebabs that were 100 per lamb. Of the others, three were mixed with beef, three with chicken and one with both. A politician in Germany has risked outrage by calling for food tainted with horsemeat to be distributed to the poor. Development minister Dirk Niebel said: "We can't just throw away good food." Britain is pressing for urgent approval for a new system of random checks on meat products traded within the European Union in the wake of the scandal. And a second meat plant in the Irish Republic was closed on Friday after it emerged that horsemeat was being sent as beef to the Czech Republic. The Food Standards Agency said: "Relevant local authorities will need to follow up these results with further investigations to identify where these kebabs have been made and to ensure that sufficient information on ingredients is provided to purchasers, and action taken where deliberate fraud may be taking place." The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: "There is no legal definition of a doner kebab, but if a business serves one that isn't labelled accurately, this should be reported to trading standards." The tests were unable to disclose exact percentages for each type of meat, but Paul Hancock, an analyst with Worcestershire Scientific Services, said the amounts of beef and chicken were higher than trace contamination. "This would be an offence under food labelling and food safety laws," he said. Consumer choice is being denied and it is important for people to choose their meat. A 'no horse meat' sign at Bates Butchers in Market Harborough, central England, as more beef products are removed from UK supermarkets in the ongoing horse meat scandal Pallets of food products suspected of containing horse meat - including ready-made lasagne - have been sealed off and marked as 'off-limits' in a refrigerated warehouse in Neuss, western Germany