Study makes disturbing revelations about content of hot dogs

Clear Food, a California company that undertakes testing foods genetically, has made disturbing revelations about the content of hot dogs, the popular American fast food.  

It found:

• 15 per cent of products had some issues
• Only 10 per cent of veg hot dogs were actually veg and 67 per cent of them had hygiene issues
• Human DNA traces were found in 2 per cent of hot dogs.

The company tested 345 samples of sausages and hot dogs from 75 brands including meatless.

According to the survey, around 14.4 per cent of sausages and hot dogs had issues ranging from misleading labels, hygiene issues or incomplete list of ingredients.

A number of brands did not respect the beliefs, diet or way of life of consumers. While it was essential for several religions that when there was 'pork free' label, it needed to be really free of pork, this requirement is not followed by all. Around 3 per cent of such labeled products did not match the claims.

A number of brands did not even care about consumers' vegetarian lifestyle, rather, vegetarian hot dogs were considered to be the worst of the lot.

About 10 per cent of vegetarian hot dogs contained meat and had hygiene issues, but some brands were quite loyal and the best for vegetarians was Trader Joe's.

The Hot Dog Report said, ''Each sample we analyze is assigned a Clear Score. The Clear Score is a representation of how closely a product's label claims match its actual molecular contents. The higher the score, the more closely a product abides by its claims.

To create the score, each item is molecularly analyzed through our proprietary DNA sequencing workflow.

"We screen for major, medium, and minor substitution, and we deduct points accordingly. We then examine products for nutrition-content accuracy, such as carbs, fat, calories, and protein. All Clear Score calculations are run through a secondary-analysis pipeline, scrubbed for statistical accuracy and error, and delivered to consumers via ClearFood.com.''

On the brighter side, the report states, ''Despite the problems we found, what was most promising in our tests was the fact that there are a number of hot dog manufacturers, large and small, that are producing high-quality hot dogs with integrity. These producers were not limited to organic producers or high-end specialty brands- products across a variety of price points scored well.''