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A trading standards department has revealed EVERY takeaway they investigated in a recent inspection has been selling customers pizzas containing “fake cheese”.

Officers visited 20 outlets in Lancashire for the food sampling operation and performed tests on ingredients used in hundreds of pizzas sold to customers.

Each premises failed on descriptions of the ham, cheese, or both.

The report revealed 19 out of 20 samples were found to contain “analogue cheese” - an artificial cheesy substance that is much quicker and cheaper to produce than real cheese.

Inspectors found 10 out of the 15 pizzas that purported to contain ham actually contained turkey DNA.

Four samples that were advertised as containing pepperoni were found to contain “species in addition to beef or pork”.

poll loading Do you care if your pizza contains fake cheese? 500+ VOTES SO FAR Of course I do - I want the real thing! Not at all - it tastes great

Paul Noone, head of Lancashire County Council Trading Standards, said: “We tested 20 takeaways across Lancashire to check that the ingredients used in their pizzas matched those on the descriptions.

“However, we found that substitutes for things like cheese, ham and pepperoni were being used.

“We’ve written to the owners telling them they must correctly describe the ingredients they use in their pizzas.

“Our next step will be to work closely with takeaway owners and wholesalers to ensure everyone understands how products should be labelled.

"We will also carry out resampling in the future to make sure the businesses are compliant.”