English 101
26 October 2012
The All American Hotdog: How Can It Be Wrong? The overwhelming majority of Americans have probably, at one time or another, eaten a hotdog. For instance, O’Hare airport sells approximately two million hotdogs per year (thestatecafe.com). The convenience store giant, 7-Eleven, sells a whopping 100 million every year (Weingarten). These two amazing statistics tell just how popular the hot dog really is. But for every good, or positive, there usually is a negative. Not only is the process of making a hotdog rather disgusting, there may be some health risks associated with eating them. If the American public was aware of how hotdogs are produced and the ingredients used to create them, it is likely that hotdogs would not be the food of choice for many people. While there is no definitive answer on how many hotdogs are actually produced in America each year, there are some rather eye popping statistics of Americans’ infatuation with the hot dog. There are approximately nineteen billion hotdogs consumed each year (weirdfacts.com). The summer season seems to be the most popular for eating hotdogs, as a stunning seven billion hotdogs are eaten from Memorial Day to Labor Day, with 150 million of those being eaten on July 4th alone (fillyourplate.org). Another hard to believe fact about hotdogs is there are roughly 550 eaten every second (weirdfacts.com). The popularity of the hotdog is evident by the fact that it is served in 94% of homes in the United States (weirdfacts.com), and the average American will eat approximately fifty hotdogs each year (blog.fooducate.com). With the hot dog being such a popular choice of food, let’s take a look at how they are actually made. First, trimmings or unwanted cutoffs from pork, beef, and chicken are mixed together and ground into a product similar to ground beef. Liquids, such as water and corn syrup, and spices are then added to the meat. These ingredients are then mixed together to produce an emulsion, which is then pumped into the hot dog casing. After the hot dogs are encased, they are hung on racks and run through a smoker. The smoker adds more flavor to the hotdog and cooks it as well. The hotdogs are then cooled to prepare for packaging. As an electrician, I have had the opportunity to work in various food production facilities. Many of these factories have forced me to reconsider what my family and I eat today. While not all the facilities were difficult to work in by what I was seeing, one production facility was downright disgusting. The products made at this factory were all processed meats. Sandwich cold cuts, Canadian bacon, and sausages are some of the meats produced. When I first walked into the facility, the hickory aroma from the smoker caught my attention. Entering the actual production area was when I started getting a little uneasy. The greasy floors made me feel as if I was skating on ice. The vats of what I will, politely, call pink slime, lined the walls, awaiting their turn to be stuffed into casings. A walkthrough of the smoker presented to me hundreds of three foot long by six inches in diameter, logs of sausages. The sausages were then packaged as they were or sliced into thin cuts of meat, and then packaged for delivery to many well- known stores and eating establishments. To this day, I will not eat anything I know was produced at that plant. I do, however, think about what was actually used to make something so despicable. There are many ingredients in a hot dog, some of which I have already talked about. There are also curing agents and spices such as salt, garlic, mustard, which are used for flavoring. Now we will begin to discuss the seedy underbelly of the hotdog. Hotdogs have a fairly long shelf life due to some of the preservatives that are used in making hotdogs. One common preservative used is sodium nitrite. Flavor enhancers are also found in many hotdogs, with the most common being monosodium glutamate, or MSG. Meats commonly used in producing hotdogs are pork, chicken, and beef. While many people believe they are actually eating pure pork, chicken, or beef, they may be sorely mistaken. Many hot dogs may include some ingredients that may be labeled as “with variety meats”, “made with mechanically separated meats”, or “with meat by-products”. Meats with these distinctions can include livers, kidneys, and hearts. Mechanically separated refers to meat that is separated from the bone using high pressure to forcefully separate edible meat from bones through a sieve. Mechanically separated beef is no longer allowed in hotdogs due to the fear of mad cow disease, according to the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). The U.S. Department of Agriculture requires that hotdogs made with “variety meats” or “with meat by-products”, shall be labeled on the packaging. Some of the ingredients used in making hot dogs carry some health risks with them. As mentioned earlier, mad cow disease was feared with the use of mechanically separated meats. Mad cow was a major concern, as during the process of mechanically separating edible meat from the bone, bits of the animals spinal cord often got mixed with the rest of the meat. The spinal cord is the part of the animal most likely to be carrying the disease. Sodium nitrite is used as a preservative and to add flavor to hotdogs, and studies have found it can lead to the formation of cancer causing chemicals. MSG has been linked to a variety of health related issues such as migraine headaches, asthma, obesity, and pregnancy related problems. Although there seems to be a lot of information to deter people from eating hotdogs, there are steps to find a pure hot dog, free of additives or meat by-products. Hotdog packaging must list the ingredients used in making hotdogs and federal guidelines limit what can be added. Consumers can either be cognizant of what is written on the package or opt for a nitrate-free or organic hotdog. These types of hotdogs contain all meat, and do not have byproducts, artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. If people choose to eat hotdogs, that is a decision of their own, but we all should have some idea of what we are putting in our mouths.

Works Cited
Fillyourplate.com. “Hotdog Facts”. 2012. 23 October 2012
Thestatecafe.com. “Fun Facts”. n.d. 24 October 2012.
Weingarten, Hemi. “Interestin Facts About Hotdogs”. 2011. 21 October 2012.
Weirdfacts.com. “Hotdog facts”. 2012. 21 October 2012.