Dog or Cat Meat Suspected in Mystery Indian 'Lamb' Curry

An unnamed Indian takeaway has been found serving wrongly labelled meat by BBC researchers. Food experts working for a BBC3 programme had ordered an Indian lamb curry from the London restaurant but found that the meat in the curry had no trace of lamb.

Further DNA tests concluded that the meat chunks were not beef, chicken, pork, goat, horse or even human flesh, leading to speculation that the "lamb" curry contained dog or cat meat.

The Horsemeat Banquet programme, which roped in a group of young diners to challenge their prejudices about food, found that the meat in the Indian curry was anything other than lamb.

A show spokesperson said: "The lab is unable to identify exactly which animal this meat came from."

Nutritionist Surinder Phull said: "It's absolutely terrifying because if it isn't any of the meats we know, what is it? Where has it come from? Where was it slaughtered? Was it hygienic? Was it covered in bacteria?"

The restaurant in the programme was not the only one found to be serving suspicious meat. The young diners also had doubts about food they obtained from Chinese takeaways and fast food outlets in the capital.

The beef in Chinese black bean sauce consisted largely of chicken blood and contained only tiny amounts of beef.

And a beefburger bought from a local fast food shop was analysed in the laboratory to reveal that it consisted of bovine blood, chicken scraps and a high level of chicken blood.

The only takeaway restaurant to serve authentic meat was a doner kebab shop. The lamb kebab purchased by the reseasrch team contained no trace of any other meat mixed with it.

Since the horsemeat scandal broke, the Food Standards Agency has ordered more than 5,000 tests and returned 44 positive results showing equine contents in meals..