What are Hot Dogs Made of? Pathological Analysis...

Ever since the publication of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair in 1906 about the US meat industry, there has been a negative connotation on what hot dogs are actually made of. Urban legend will report anything and everything can potentially be found in a hot dog including rats, human extremities, feces, etc.

So this begs the question of what really is found inside a hot dog when looked under the microscope to bring light of truth upon this murky question.

in 2008, Ohio pathologists took a look at 8 different brands of hot dogs and this is what they found:

• The average meat content in a hot dog was only 5.7% (range 2.9% - 21%). Water actually made up most of a hot dog content consisting of 57% (range 44% - 69%). What meat was seen was recognizable as muscle, but did show evidence of degenerative changes. Also, the higher the meat content, the more expensive the hot dog was.

• No brain tissue was seen in any samples (especially important when considering mad-cow disease is localized in brain tissue and can be transmitted to humans who eat contaminated tissue causing fatal Crutzfeldt-Jakob disease).
• Besides meat, other tissue types were seen including connective tissue, blood vessels, nerves, and fat (all expected in meat/muscle).
• However, cartilage and bone was also found in some samples, perhaps accrued during the butchering and processing of the meat.
• Unexpectedly, skin was found in one hot dog. Plant material was also unexpectedly found which may have been added as a way to add bulk to the meat.

There you have it!

What about hamburger meat? Click here for more info...

Reference:

Applying morphologic techniques to evaluate hotdogs: what is in the hotdogs we eat? Ann Diagn Pathol. 2008 Apr;12(2):98-102. doi: 10.1016/j.anndiagpath.2007.04.012. Epub 2007 Oct 24.