Deconstructing the Hot Dog

In case you didn’t already know, July is national hot dog month. To commemorate this occasion, every year on July 4th, thousands of fans crowd the Nathan’s hot dog stand at the corner of Surf and Stillwell, in Coney Island, Brooklyn to see how many hot dogs the contestants can cram down their throats in ten minutes. Last year reigning champion, Joey Chestnut, consumed an alarming 54 hotdogs to bring home the grand prize of $10,000. So in case you are wondering in ten minutes time, Joey Chestnut consumed 16,038 calories, 972 grams of fat and 37,368 mg of sodium. That is more calories than the average adult eats in an entire week! Furthermore, we have all heard tales of hot dogs containing an endless variety of “mystery meats,” so how much of these questionable meat byproducts did he actually consume?

Are hotdogs even as sketchy as we all suspect? To answer some of these questions, we refer to the USDA website for some insight into the composition of America’s favorite summer treat. First of all, all hot dogs produced in the United States must adhere to the Federal standards of identity. In laymen’s terms, these standards tell food manufacturers how they can produce and market meat, poultry, and egg products in the United States. In reference to hotdogs they must the follow these guidelines:

1) The finished products may not contain more than 30% fat by weight or no more than 10% water, or a combination of 40% fat and added water.
2) Up to 3.5% non-meat binders and extenders (such as nonfat dry milk, cereal, or dried whole milk) or 2% isolated soy protein may be used, but must be shown in the ingredients statement on the product's label by its common name.
3) If the type of casing is different than that of the hot dog, the label must say so. For example, if a turkey hot dog has a pork casing, the label must list the pork casing on the ingredients list.
4) Products labeled, "Frankfurter, Hot Dog, Wiener, or Bologna With Byproducts" or "With Variety Meats" must contain at least 15% of raw skeletal muscle meat with raw meat byproducts (heart, kidney, or liver, for example). In other words, a minimum of 15% of your hotdog is made from what we would recognize as meat, with some organ meats thrown in there as well. The remaining 85% are binders, preservatives and mechanically separated meat (see explanation below).
5) Hot dogs can contain no more than 20% mechanically separated pork and can contain any amount of mechanically separated chicken or turkey. Mechanically separating meat is produced by forcing bones, with attached edible meat, under high pressure through a sieve or similar device to separate the bone from the edible meat tissue. Needless to say, some of the bone may slip in there, but there are regulations in place to limit the amount.

So there you have it, straight from the USDA. Hot dogs are a little bit of everything, meat, binders, organs and possibly a little bone meal. Most of us probably are not all that surprised, but that being said, not all hot dogs are created equal. The USDA set minimum quality requirements and it is up to the consumer to know what he is purchasing. Our greatest defense - the labels. Hot dog companies may try to fool you into believing that their product is pure, but government regulations protect customers by requiring all ingredients to be listed on the label. Look for words like, mechanically separated meat, and if organ meats are not your cup of tea, those are required to be listed on the label as well. The moral of the story, be an educated consumer and enjoy your hot dogs in moderation.