At baseball stadiums, holiday cookouts, and in the dorm rooms of broke college students everywhere, hot dogs have become a staple meal. Each time we wield a wiener, however, rumors and innuendo over the food’s manufacturing integrity come flooding to the surface. Is this tubed meat made from monkey brains? Is there an underground network of hot dog companies that slip in cows’ feet as a filler? Why are hot dogs so nutritionally suspect?
Fortunately, most of your worst fears may be unfounded. Except for the feet. More on that in a moment ...
Ever since Upton Sinclair uncovered the misdeeds of the meat industry in the early 1900s, the government has kept a close eye on animal product manufacturing methods. Gone were the sawdust and dog and horse parts that previously made up hot dogs and other highly-processed meats. Companies had to obey strict preparation guidelines that significantly reduced the chances of foodborne illness and forced them into using transparent food labels.
Hot dogs are no exception, though you might have to decipher some of the language on the label to understand what you’re really biting into. Beef, pork, turkey, or chicken dogs originate with trimmings, a fanciful word for the discards of meat cuts that are left on the slaughterhouse table. That usually means fatty tissue, sinewy muscle, meat from an animal’s head—not typically a choice cut at Morton’s—and the occasional liver.
This heap of unappetizing gristle is pre-cooked to kill bacteria and transformed into an even more unappetizing meat paste via emulsion, then ground up and pushed through a sieve so that it takes on a hamburger-like texture. A number of things could be added at this point, including ascorbic acid (vitamin C) to aid in curing, water, corn syrup, and various spices for taste. Less appetizing ingredients can also include sodium erythorbate, which the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council swears is not actually ground-up earthworms:
"In contrast to a popular urban legend, erythorbate is NOT made from earthworms, though the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports receiving many inquiries about erythorbate’s source. It is speculated that the similarity in the spelling of the words 'erythorbate' and 'earthworms' has led to this confusion."
Got that? No worms. After another puree, the meat paste is pumped into casings to get that familiar tubular shape and is then fully cooked. After a water rinse, the hot dog has the cellulose casing removed and is packaged for consumption. While not exactly fine dining, it’s all USDA-approved.
More skittish consumers should pay attention to packaging labels. If you see “variety meats” or “meat by-products,” that means the hot dog probably has heart or other organ material in the meat batter. Additives like MSG and nitrates are also common, though all-natural dogs usually skip any objectionable ingredients. If it’s labeled “all beef or “all pork,” you can be assured it's coming from muscle tissue of that animal, not organs.
But those trimmings? By definition, they can contain a lot of things that come off an animal, including blood, skin, and even feet. It’s all edible, though some might object to the very idea of eating random cow or pig parts. At least none of it is actual human meat, as some people feared when a Clear Lab food advocacy test in 2015 showed 2 percent of hot dog samples contained human DNA. That was more likely due to human error and trace amounts of hair or fingernails making their way into the batch, not a worker falling into the vat. Enjoy!
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Some hot dogs are made of only three ingredients: beef trimmings, salt, and seasonings. However, many hot dogs can also contain fillers, preservatives, and other artificial additives. Along with considering what hot dogs are made of, you should also consider the quality of the ingredients.
As Yasmin Tayag writes for Inverse, hot dogs are the result of a blend of “mashed-up pork and beef trimmings that are swirled together with processed chicken trimmings, food starch, flavorings, corn syrup, and lots of water.” Tayag explains that another ingredient added to hot dogs is sodium nitrite, which gives the ...
Even the language experts have issued a verdict: Merriam-Webster came down definitively on the side of yes, a hot dog IS a sandwich, because “the definition of sandwich is 'two or more slices of bread or a split roll having a filling in between.
There is not 2% human DNA in hotdogs, rather out of 345 different brands 2% of these contained human DNA (about 7 brands). This was not because of human meat being used but due to lack of hygiene finding hair and skin dander falling into the actual meat.
“The raw meat materials used for precooked-cooked products like hot dogs are muscle trimmings, fatty tissues, head meat, animal feet, animal skin, blood, liver and other slaughter by-products.”
High speed, stainless steel choppers blend the meat, spices, ice chips and curing ingredients into an emulsion or batter. The mixture is continuously weighed to assure a proper balance of all ingredients. The mixture is then pumped into an automatic stuffer/linker machine, where it flows into casings.
They also have a wide arrangement of topping such as relish, cheese, or the many kinds of sauces. Some people might argue that hotdogs aren't tacos because tacos are a Mexican dish. That is true, however hotdogs aren't normal tacos.
For this there are two arguments: The pizza by itself is a sandwich, or when folded, a pizza resembles a sandwich. For a food to be considered as a sandwich, it has to have two pieces of bread with some sort of filling in between. Pizza can not be a sandwich because to do so you must first fold the pizza.
Hot dogs are made from the emulsified meat trimmings of chicken, beef, or pork. This meat mixture is blended with other ingredients (like preservatives, spices, and coloring) into a batter-like substance.
Listeria monocytogenes can be in ready-to-eat foods such as hot dogs, luncheon meats, cold cuts, fermented or dry sausage, and other deli-style meat and poultry, soft cheeses and unpasteurized milk. Symptoms of listeriosis include fever, chills, headache, backache, an upset stomach, abdominal pain and diarrhea.
In contrast to a popular urban legend, erythorbate is NOT made from earthworms, though the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports receiving many inquiries about erythorbate's source. It is speculated that the similarity in the spelling of the words “erythorbate” and “earthworms” has led to this confusion.
Sausage casing, also known as sausage skin or simply casing, is the material that encloses the filling of a sausage. Natural casings are made from animal intestines or skin; artificial casings, introduced in the early 20th century, are made of collagen and cellulose.
According to legend, Gaius exclaimed, “I have discovered something of great importance!” He stuffed the intestines with ground game meats mixed with spices and wheat—and the sausage was created. After that, the sausage traveled across Europe, making its way eventually to present-day Germany.
You should not find any bone fragments in hot dogs. During the creation of mechanically-separated pork and poultry, the machinery cannot crush or grind the bones; they must be removed basically intact, the USDA says.
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