Last year, Americans spent $2.5 billion on hot dogs, $2.74 billion on dinner sausages, and over $500 million on breakfast sausages. We love our hot dogs here in America and most of us realize that hot dogs and sausages aren’t the healthiest food around. However, we trust that if the label says the hot dogs are beef or pork, then that is what they are. A recent study by Clear Food found we can’t always believe that.
The Hot Dog Report, by Clear Food found that 2 percent of hot dogs have human DNA in them. 10 percent of vegetarian hot dogs contain some sort of meat. The two biggest problems are substitutions and hygienic issues. that are not on the label. Substitutions are ingredients added by the manufacturer that are not on the label. That would be meat in vegetarian dogs or pork added into products that claim to not have pork. A hygienic issue is when any sort of non-harmful contaminant is found in the food. This is usually human DNA.
Now, before you start thinking about the fact that human DNA is in hot dogs, just remember that could mean it is probably because the food came into contact with a human somewhere along the assembly line. Human DNA can be found in dried skin cells or hair. Most meat companies try to set up a process where humans rarely touch the product, but there is a margin of error.
You can check out The Hot Dog Report by clicking here. We’ve included the top 10 hot dog brands below.
Top 10 Major Hot Dog Brands as rated by Clear Foods
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1. Butterball | 96 |
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2. McCormick | 96 |
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3. Eckrich | 96 |
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4. Hebrew National | 96 |
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5. Simply Balanced | 93 |
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6. Aidells | 92 |
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7. Jennie-O | 91 |
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8. Boar’s Head | 91 |
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9. Oscar Mayer | 90 |
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10. O Organics | 90 |
