Sure, no one expects a hot dog to be the healthiest thing at your barbecue. But before you chow down on your frankfurter sandwich — is it a sandwich? a taco? — you might want a little more information about what you’re ingesting. Is a hot dog really worse for you than a fat, juicy burger?
The truth about what’s inside those plastic-y casings isn’t as dark as you may have imagined — though there are certainly some health concerns involved. Most hot dog ingredients fit within a few simple categories. Here’s a rundown of ingredients you might find.
Meat
The type of meat differs depending on the dog, but you’ll typically find beef, pork, chicken, turkey or a combination of these different meats.
You might have noticed that some brands list these meats as “mechanically separated.” Your instinct might be screaming “ew!” — but in the case of pork, chicken and turkey, it’s really not that a big deal. Mechanical separation is the process by which companies use machines to remove meat closer to the bone. That means they need to kill fewer animals to generate the same number of frankfurters.
“From a reduction in food waste standpoint, mechanical separation likely does decrease waste,” Ginger Hultin, spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and owner of ChampagneNutrition told The Daily Meal via telephone. “But keep in mind that because of how hot dogs are made, they can be high in fat.” More fatty parts of the animal may be included.
You might be concerned about parts of the animal not typically eaten (bones, organs and byproducts) getting thrown into the mix. By law, mechanical separation cannot involve the grinding, crushing or pulverizing of bones. The bones must remain intact and are removed. Additionally, the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service mandates that organs and other byproducts be listed as a separate ingredient on the label. If there’s a kidney in your hot dog, the label has to disclose it.
Mechanical separation of beef has been banned by the USDA since 2004 due to concerns about mad cow disease. Mechanically separated poultry has been deemed safe by the USDA since 1995, and hot dogs cannot be made of more than 20 percent mechanically separated pork.
