Having such a closer look at the contents of hot dogs and their production process, one could find out with a great surprise, that the popular foodstuff has its dark side concerning its health hazards.It is a fact that there is nothing natural about frankfurters, which is a processed nutrition deprived foodstuff. Hot dogs are manufactured in a very automated way in factories at an astounding rate of 300,000 hot dogs every hour.
Hotdogs have pork mixed with beef and chicken. The manufacturing procedure entails employing the remaining scraps of steaks and pork chop, and the so-called edible slaughter waste products, e.g., feet, heads, fatty parts, and even the animal skins.
A thick paste is all that is necessary in grinding these ingredients then followed by addition of a wide range of additives in order to achieve better taste. These are huge quantities of salt, corn syrup, MSG, nitrates, and other chemicals.
The flavorings vary according to their region depending on tastes.
They include MSG and carmine which is a dye made of crushed beetles that have been cooked in ammonia or sodium carbonate. It is worth noting that the lines of the Department of Agriculture do not oblige manufacturers to present the flavorings on the labels, thus freely having the ability to have large quantities of undocumented ingredients.
Processed meats such as hot dogs have been found to be serious health hazards too. The University of Hawaii study concluded that the risk of developing pancreatic can.cer shoots up by 67 percent due to the consumption of processed meats.
Nitrates and nitrites are publicly regarded as one of the scariest hot dog ingredients. Even hot dogs that are organic may have high concentration of these compounds. In processed meat, exposure to high heat makes them react with amines to form nitrosamines-chemicals, which are linked to a higher possibility of developing multiple can.cers, such as bladder, pancreatic, colon, and stomach can.cer.
As per American Institute of Can.cer Research, consumption of one hot dog every day increases the chances of colorectal can.cer by 21 percent.
The video below gives an exclusive behind-the-scene experience of the hot dog-making business.