A food ingredients analytics start-up called Clear Lab has found some startling discoveries about our beloved hotdog. A shocking 2 percent of American hotdog brands in particular contain human DNA and over 65 percent were found also found in vegetarian variety.
As reported in The Hoops News , the food research company tested 345 brands of hot dogs from 75 different food brands. The conclusion was that 14.4% of hotdogs contain some things that shouldn't be there. Almost 15 percent of the hotdogs are already problematic.
More so, the researchers also found out that many hotdogs, around 10 percent, labelled as vegetarian actually contain meat of various kinds. About 3 percent of those labelled as kosher were found containing pork and chicken amongst other things. However, the most unsettling discovery has been the presence of human DNA in more than 65 percent of vegetarian-labelled hot dogs. They have not elaborated what "Human DNA" means but it definitely doesn't mean animal meat.
Clear Foods was designed to examine the accuracy of the content labels of several major hot dog brands. As reported in CBS News, Clear Foods used "genomic technology to analyze the world's foods at a molecular level, ingredient by ingredient" as stated in their report. The ultimate purpose of Clear Foods is to combat food-borne illness by conducting genetic tests of mass-produced food. The recently published their findings in "The Hotdog Report".
However, despite these shocking discoveries, Clear Foods has noted the manufacturers they believe are producing "high quality hot dogs with integrity".
Butterball, McCormick, Eckrick and Hebrew National all ranked 1st in Clear Foods' top manufacturers list with a score of 96/100. Landing on 5th place is Simply Balanced with a score of 93 percent. Meanwhile, the best vegetarian hotdog went to Trader Joes' Soy Chorizo.
The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council has revealed that Americans consume about 20 billion hot dogs every year spending an average of $2.5 billion on this food item annually. May the finding serve as a guide on how consumers select their hot dogs cause even the most avid eater of hot dogs will definitely cringe at the thought of eating something from human.