The juiciness of any future kebabs lies in the hands of the European Commission.
After weeks of pitta-ful puns in the press, the fate of the kebab in Europe is about to be decided by a vote at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France on Wednesday, 13 December.
The debate surrounds the use of phosphates in meat cooked on a spit, which preserves flavour and retains water, but has also been linked with heart disease.
This health risk however, has been disputed in scientific and consumer interest communities, but one disadvantage is the EU’s precautionary principle or a “better safe than sorry” attitude.
The EU typically has rules in place, which restrict the use of phosphate additives in meat preparation, but there are a few areas where these do not apply, such as with breakfast sausages, burger meat with a minimum vegetable content, Finnish grey salted Christmas ham and frozen kebab meat.
All of this seemed set to change during late November, when the European Parliament’s health committee voted against a proposal by the European Commission that would allow the additive in kebab meats, such as mutton, lamb, poultry, beef or veal. Now, the European Parliament is to decide upon the issue on Wednesday, with possible rejection meaning that the proposal would be sent back to the commission.
If that is the case, then the taste of the kebab that we all know and love could end up lost somewhere in the European Union. After all, the only thing that can hold down the flavour of a kebab better than phosphate additives is red tape.
Were this to happen, then the repercussions could be vast, since the industry currently employs 200,000 people throughout the 28-nation state. It even has members of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat party worried, with one member, Renate Sommer, warning his Facebook followers that this ban “would be the end of doner production and would lead to the loss of thousands of jobs”.
If the proposal is successful however, then the European bloc could lift the ban on phosphates, meaning good times for all, hindered only by the possibility of heart complications down the line.
Until that time, the best thing to do might just be to savour the juiciness of your order towards the end of a Twelve Pubs of Christmas run.
It might be the winter you look back on with fondness in later years, when the grandkids treat the doner kebab like a modern day unicorn.
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