I suppose we can take solace in the glial immunostaining being negative (re risk of BSE). I'm curious as to what the "plant material used as a filler in many hotdogs" was.The purpose of this study is to assess the meat and water content of several hotdog brands to determine if the package labels are accurate. Eight brands of hotdogs were evaluated for water content by weight. A variety of routine techniques in surgical pathology including routine light microscopy with hematoxylin-eosin-stained sections, special staining, immunohistochemistry, and electron microscopy were used to assess for meat content and for other recognizable components. Package labels indicated that the top-listed ingredient in all 8 brands was meat; the second listed ingredient was water (n = 6) and another type of meat (n = 2). Water comprised 44% to 69% (median, 57%) of the total weight. Meat content determined by microscopic cross-section analysis ranged from 2.9% to 21.2% (median, 5.7%). The cost per hotdog ($0.12-$0.42) roughly correlated with meat content.
A variety of tissues were observed besides skeletal muscle including bone (n = 8), collagen (n = 8), blood vessels (n = 8), plant material (n = 8), peripheral nerve (n = 7), adipose (n = 5), cartilage (n = 4), and skin (n = 1). Glial fibrillary acidic protein immunostaining was not observed in any of the hotdogs. Lipid content on oil red O staining was graded as moderate in 3 hotdogs and marked in 5 hotdogs...
In conclusion, hotdog ingredient labels are misleading; most brands are more than 50% water by weight. The amount of meat (skeletal muscle) in most brands comprised less than 10% of the cross-sectional surface area. More expensive brands generally had more meat. All hotdogs contained other tissue types (bone and cartilage) not related to skeletal muscle; brain tissue was not present.
Via Discover magazine and Neatorama.
A lot of hot dogs have flour to bind. It's a filler in that it's not meat and cheaper than meat, but hot dogs are emulsified sausages which implies there will be water in there.
ReplyDeleteI really wish they would have named brands. I only eat Hebrew National hot dogs because they claim and the consistency of the dog seem to confirm that they have no byproducts and are mostly meat.
ReplyDeleteThey may well be named in the Ann Diag Pathol article (all I had available was the abstract, not the data or discussion).
DeleteIt would be nice if there was a brand out there that made them with regular cuts, so that you could know you weren't getting the by-products listed above, or worse....
ReplyDeleteThey found more Mad Cow in California the other day, so I'll make mine veggie for now...
My family eats Applegate Farms hot dogs -- a little expensive, but it's whole muscle meat, and delicious. http://www.applegatefarms.com/
DeleteGreat, thanks for the tip John!
DeleteOscar Mayer hotdogs don't have enough carbs to be stuffed with flour. I suspect soy oil and flour.
ReplyDelete