Hot dogs are often considered as mystery meat and it's no wonder there's a myriad of suspicions about what a hot dog is really made of. Now, researchers reveal the real deal when it comes down to hot dog composition at a molecular level.
Researchers from a startup laboratory known as Clear Food tested 345 hot dog samples from 75 different food brands where they discovered that 14.4 percent of the hot dogs were made from something "problematic in some way".
These problems were especially prevalent from meat in hot dogs that were labeled as vegetarian or that says it contains pork in kosher labels.
The report also shows that there was human DNA found in 2 percent of the samples where two thirds of them are labelled as vegetarian.
In order to determine and analyze the results, Clear Food utilized new technology that uses molecular level techniques to detect allergens and hidden additives where other food testings can potentially miss.
The results of Clear Food reveals many more issues including how three percent of the samples claim that there is no pork in them but in reality contain pork especially in chicken hot dogs.
Also, vegetarian product labels often "exaggerate" the amount of protein they actually contain where one sample actually contained 2.5 times less protein than what was indicated on the label and 10 percent of the vegetarian hot dogs contained actual meat of some kind.
This new study also determined which brands provided the best quality hot dogs where Trader Joe's Soy Chorizo made it to the top of the list.
To date, Americans consume 20 billion hot dogs every year where last year, US $2.5 billion was spent on hot dogs and $2.74 billion on dinner sausages and more than half a billion for breakfast sausages according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council.
The lab startup hopes to offer its services to food companies supplying food chains, with relevant data to reveal to consumers what are the main ingredients in their food from their favorite brands that they buy from groceries.