(Picture: Photolibrary RM/Metro.co.uk)

If you were at school in the nineties and early noughties, you’ll know that there were few joys more pure then tucking into a plate of Turkey Twizzlers, potato smilies, and beans – ideally followed by chocolate sponge with chocolate custard.

You’ll also hate Jamie Oliver with a burning passion, as he fought to get that joy snatched away from us.

First they were banned from school meals and then, over time, Bernard Matthews stopped making Turkey Twizzlers entirely (they do still make turkey dinosaurs though, thankfully).

Damn you, Jamie Oliver, and your need to prioritise children’s health over delicious lunchtime meals.




There have been murmurings of rage ever since then – usually in the form of tweets begging Jamie Oliver to leave us alone when he launches another petition against something delicious.

But now we’re full-on fighting back with a petition of our own. A petition to bring back Turkey Twizzlers.

(Picture: Photolibrary RM/Metro.co.uk)

Kirsty Rogers, who created the petition, wrote: ‘I used to live off turkey twizzlers used to make sure my mum stocked up lol. But to think my kids will never experience the taste of them makes me want to get this petition as far as possible. So come on u twizzlers lovers get signing.’

A very worthy reason to get those processed meat spirals brought back into our lives, right?

The petition has a goal of 15,000 signatures, which is close to being completed. At the time of writing more than 10,000 people have signed.

It’s not clear what will happen if the target is met, however. Who will the petition be presented to? Bernard Matthews, to show the brand how dearly their turkey twists are missed? The government? Jamie Oliver?

Reasons for signing include ‘I miss these beauties in my life they were a taste sensation!!’ and ‘Jamie Oliver is a bellend who ruined my childhood.’

If you fancy showing your support for Turkey Twizzlers, you can sign the petition through Change.org.

What happened to Turkey Twizzlers? Jamie Oliver campaigned against having Turkey Twizzlers on the menu for school lunches, as part of his Channel 4 series Jamie’s School Dinners. He confronted the head of Scolarest, the company that supplied meals to a load of state primary and secondary schools in the UK, who agreed to stop serving up those processed twizzles of meat. A Scolarest spokeswoman said at the time: ‘We do recognise customers’ concerns about the product. We have embarked on a long programme to take off as much processed food as possible.’ In 2005, Turkey Twizzlers were removed from school lunch menus, but Bernard Matthews, the company behind the food item, said they had no plans to stop making the products entirely. They lowered the levels of fat and salt in their products, but Jamie Oliver still regarded the products as incredibly unhealthy. A few years later, Turkey Twizzlers disappeared from supermarkets. They’re no longer listed on Bernard Matthews’ website. The issues raised with Turkey Twizzlers focused primarily on their fat content and their lack of nutritional content. Turkey Twizzlers contained just 34% turkey; bulked up with water, pork fat, rusk, and coating, and loaded with additives, sweeteners, and flavourings. They were found to be made up of 21.2% fat when cooked. The exact ingredients were: Turkey (34 per cent), water, pork fat, rusk, coating (sugar, rusk, tomato powder, wheat starch, dextrose, salt, wheat flour, potassium chloride, hydrogenated vegetable oil, citric acid, spices, onion powder, malt extract, smoke flavourings, garlic powder, colour [E160c], mustard flour, permitted sweetener [E951], herb, spice extracts, herb extracts), vegetable oil, turkey skin, salt, wheat flour, dextrose, stabiliser (E450), mustard, yeast extract, antioxidants (E304, E307, E330, E300), herb extract, spice extract, colour (E162).

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