Over the summer, about 7 billion hot dogs were consumed in the U.S. That’s more than 150 million on Fourth of July alone. Most frankfurters are manufactured using beef or pork or sometimes a mix thereof. These days you can even fill your bun with the chicken or turkey variety which are viewed as a healthy alternative.
If you’re not a big fan of meat hot dogs, you may go for the popular vegetarian incarnation, but a new study has revealed that not only did some meatless brands contain meat, they also exaggerated the amount of protein they contained by as much as 2.5 times. Vegetarian items accounted for 67% of the hygienic issues found in the report. In a more bizarre finding, it seems 2 of 3 brands actually contained as much a 2 percent human DNA.
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Clear Foods, which “uses genomic technology to analyze the world’s foods at a molecular level, ingredient by ingredient,” released a report recently that it said was designed to look at the accuracy of the content labels of several major hot dog brands. The company analyzed 345 hot dog and sausage products from 75 brands and 10 retailers, and said they found “human DNA in 2% of the samples, and in 2/3rds of the vegetarian samples.” Additionally, 10 percent of all vegetarian products appeared to contain meat. h/t cbs58
The study found that there were a few standout brands that consistently produced high-quality hot dogs with integrity.
When it came to the best good old fashion beef hot dog, Hebrew National was among a handful of major brands that received top scores from Clear Foods.
