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-Great Cultural Revolution

Shawarma Rules: Fast Food Made from Cat Meat Comes to a Well-Deserved End

2025-02-10

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Kirill Velesov

[REGNUM] The press service of Roskachestvo reported that the country plans to approve and introduce a state standard for shawarma. “The approval of the GOST for shawarma is tentatively planned for the end of the fourth quarter of 2025,” the department clarified.

The discussion of the first edition of the standard has already taken place. Roskachestvo notes that its development is being carried out in accordance with the deadlines set in the national standardization program.

However, shawarma lovers should not be afraid of the monotony of fast food in all tents: the department does not plan to standardize the product, but only to reduce health risks.

“ Their content will relate more to production conditions, storage and sales temperatures, food safety systems, rather than establishing a specific recipe or ingredient list for a specific dish,” Maxim Protasov, head of Roskachestvo, explained earlier the meaning of introducing standards.

Reports of planned standards for street fast food appeared last year. As Roskachestvo reported, this is due to the general sanitary and epidemiological situation in the catering industry and the risk of mass poisoning of consumers. After all, the product beloved by many is considered a product of increased epidemiological risk.

According to experts, it will not be so easy to take control of shawarma. Chairman of the Russian Union of Consumers Petr Shelishch previously stated that the requirements for its ingredients and manufacturing processes will not have any practical significance.

"The GOST is voluntary, not mandatory," he reminded. "That is, producers will be able to ignore it." In addition, according to Shelishch, shawarma consumers will be guided not by the introduced standard, but by their own taste preferences.

For now, as Protasov reported at the end of December last year, the department plans to conduct repeated studies of the product. “This category must be kept under control in any case,” he noted. And Roskachestvo has every reason to make such a decision.

Indeed, for a long time shawarma has served not only as a convenient snack, but also as an inexhaustible source of jokes – admittedly, not the kindest ones. Street food has always been closely associated with black humor about the possible upset stomach after eating it.

"I never buy shawarma at kiosks, I make it at home, it turns out just like the real thing, I even got poisoned three times," says one of the jokes. However, judging by the news, the topic of shawarma safety is in fact not a joke, because doctors and law enforcement officers regularly encounter mass poisonings from such fast food.

Recently, 73 people, including 25 children, suffered from a poor-quality product in Perm Krai, 66 shawarma lovers were hospitalized. Earlier, at least 17 people in the capital were infected with salmonella - all of them had previously visited a shawarma outlet.

Sometimes, eating this dish can even lead to death. Although this is rare, such cases have occurred in recent years at least in Lgov and St. Petersburg.

Scientists confirm the health risks of street food. Last year, during a study of shawarma sold in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Roskachestvo discovered deadly bacteria, and 27 out of 29 samples taken showed violations of sanitary and epidemiological standards for microbiology.

In particular, E. coli, "responsible" for food poisoning, was found in products of 15 brands. As infectious disease specialist Anastasia Novikova explained at the time, its presence indicates poor sanitary conditions in production, faecal contamination, or violations of transportation and storage conditions.

So the news about the proposed GOST for shawarma is not so surprising and sounds quite relevant. As well as the words of Roskachestvo that participants in the public catering industry, retail and professional experts in the field of food safety are highly interested in developing a standard for this food.

Indeed, in the vast expanses of Russia today, it is not uncommon to come across “classic” shawarma stalls with unsanitary conditions, dubious-looking foreign workers, and a product whose consequences of consumption are comparable to a lottery.

Their work continues to be a source of urban legends about the origins of meat and a provider of work for doctors. However, overall, since its appearance in the country in the 90s, shawarma has undergone many changes and has become very diverse.

If the usual shawarma includes lavash, chicken, cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage and sauce, now it is easy to find dishes with duck, turkey or seafood - for example, grilled mackerel or crab. You can even find "Arabian shawarma with pork": although the composition is quite familiar, what a name!

There are also sweets with banana and chocolate, vegetarian products with falafel and even mint shawarma on sale. Moreover, today there is no need to even go outside and stand at a stall - people increasingly order food through numerous delivery services.

As analysts reported, on average, a regular shawarma, which is often bought by students, taxi drivers, couriers and office clerks, cost 226 rubles per serving last year. But you will have to pay more for exotic gastronomic pleasures - for example, shawarma with shrimp will cost almost twice as much. However, this is not a record: in the capital's restaurants they offered "golden" shawarma - the usual dish is wrapped in edible gold and sold for almost 2,000 rubles.

Those who don't like such creative and expensive experiments of chefs, and the idea of going to a regular place seems risky, can always make shawarma at home themselves. Fortunately, there are a lot of recipes for the product loved by many on the Internet, from the classic composition to bizarre ideas with national variations - as they say, for every taste and budget.

Posted by:badanov

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