The ingredients of hot dogs are not something most of us would prefer to ponder. Of course, if you’re eating a vegetarian hot dog, you’d think, at the very least, that the thing doesn’t contain meat.
This assumption might be deeply misguided according to a new study by Clear Labs, a food analytics company, which studied the ingredients of various brands of hot dogs and came to some disturbing conclusions. “Of the 345 hot dogs and sausages Clear Food analyzed for this report, 14.4% were problematic in some way,” the report reads. That includes finding meat in 10% of the hot dogs that were supposed to be vegetarian, but also finding pork in hot dogs that are supposed to be kosher.
The report found human DNA in 2% of samples, two-thirds of which were vegetarian-labelled hot dogs.
The study gave ratings to sausage-makers and retailers who provided the best quality dogs, singling out Trader Joe’s Soy Chorizo as the best option for vegetarians.
Read the report’s full findings here.