They're still, as with most things in life, best in moderation. They analyzed 345 hot dogs. The Hot Dog Report, Clear Food web site; http://www.clearfood.com/food_reports/2015/the_hotdog_report, last accessed October 30, 2015. It also found human DNA in 2 percent of its hot dog samples and two-thirds of the vegetarian samples. Human DNA found in the hot dogs was classified as a hygienic issue because human hair or skin dander likely got into the product during the manufacturing process, TruthOrFiction.com said the study reported. The goal wasn't to freak everyone out about eating hot dogs - let's face it, most of us already assume our sausages contain a few wildcard ingredients - but to give us more scientific information with which to make our dietary decisions. Sean Gallup/Getty Images By Tina Hesman Saey July 16, 2021 at. Does anyone leave a hotdog plant without taking a Silkwood shower? They analyzed 345 hot dogs from 75 brands, and found human DNA in 2% of the samples, and in 2/3rds of the vegetarian samples.. Hot dog sausages contain human DNA, study says, and many vegetarian ones contain meat Another problem is that 4.3 per cent of burgers contained pathogenic DNA, which can cause food. February 12 is the 2023 Super Bowl LVII, and what better way to celebrate this annual sporting event than by enjoying the deliciousness of a chip and dip combo with some family and friends? Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. The company analyzed 345 hot dog and sausage products from 75 brands and 10 retailers, and said they found "human DNA in 2% of the samples, and in 2/3rds of the vegetarian samples.". "In most cases, a lot of humans are employed in the meat industry, and their DNA is throughout the building. Altogether, 75 different hot dog brands from 10 different retailers were studied. It could have come from the person doing the analysis in the lab, says Rentfrow. "I would imagine if you used the same technology to discover what was on cereal boxes in the grocery store aisle, you might no longer 'trust' what is in other food products as well," Campbell says. It happens. Yes, two percent of hot dogs and sausages out there contain human DNA, as a new study recently found.. But a word of warning - the scientists only looked at one sample of each product, so it's hard to get a clear picture from that limited information about the overall safety and accuracy of an entire product line or brand. As for specialty picks, the study suggested Taverrite's pork sausages and vegetarian option Gardien. Substitution issues are much more problematic. In effect, almost all U.S. hot dogs are made with just meat.". The researchers found human DNA in two percent of samples, and 2/3 of those products containing human DNA were vegetarian products. "One thing's certain: questions about the hot dog are as old as the hot dog itself. And so does most food that was processed, cooked, boxed, or placed on a supermarket shelf by another human being. In other words, yes, your hot dogs are going to have a little human DNA on them. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. Or shopping at grocery stores, or buying food that at any point in its production was touched by human hands. Yes, humans work at meat processing establishments, he says. Its a theory echoed by Gregg Rentfrow, Ph.D., a professor in Animal and Food Science at the University of Kentucky. Once it's inside the cell, it transforms into NMN and then to NAD+. This dental device was sold to fix patients' jaws. Two-thirds of that human DNA was found in vegetarian hot dogs. Unless you follow Dr. Hannibal Lecter, Human DNA is the last thing you could expect in your food. Or shopping at grocery stores, or buying food that at any point in its production was touched by human hands. The good news: As bad as some brands were found to be, there are some . Imagine how many apples could test positive after being handled by half the people shopping in the grocery store, he says. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. [2]. For most of us growing up, it was one of those irresistible rumorslike how some rock songs have satanic messages if you play them backwardsthat aren't true but were endlessly fun to repeat. Theres a concept thatll haunt you if you think about it too much. Clear Foods, which "uses genomic technology to analyze the world's foods at a molecular level, ingredient by ingredient," released a report recently that it said was designed to look at the accuracy of the content labels of several major hot dog brands. For example, 10% of all vegetarian samples contained meat; chicken was found in a vegetarian breakfast sausage and pork was found in a vegetarian hot dog. Only one of the molecules has vitamin statusNR. So what does this mean to you? "What we do know is that any product collected in the marketplace was inspected and passed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Basically, any food that you haven't personally grown or harvested. .css-13y9o4w{display:block;font-family:GraphikBold,GraphikBold-fallback,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-weight:bold;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-13y9o4w:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-13y9o4w{font-size:1.05rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0.25rem;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-13y9o4w{font-size:1.28598rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-13y9o4w{font-size:1.39461rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0.5rem;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-13y9o4w{font-size:1.23488rem;line-height:1.3;}}Men's Health Review: Dymatize Protein Powder, America's 7 Most Inventive Hot Dog Styles, The Best Plant-Based Chicken, Pork, and Seafood, Here's What You Need to Know About Vitamin B12. It does, however, score products based on hygiene, safety and accurate labeling. Hope you enjoyed your lunch, Hannibal Lecter. But the ingredients of hot dogs arent nearly as ominous as were often led to believe. But pig anus may seem like a more appetizing option when compared with the latest hot dog accusation. Heres another analysis that will either put everything in perspective or send you into a spiral of food paranoia. Human DNA Found in a Small Sample of Hot Dogs and Sausages by Julie Fidler Posted on October 28, 2015 Updated on October 24, 2021 General Health The next time you squeeze some ketchup onto a ballpark frank at a baseball game, you should know you could be eating porkor you could be eating someone's eyebrows or spit. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. ", "It's entirely possible that the human DNA found could be linked back to the company's own staff," Riley said in a statement on Tuesday. What percentage of grocery store fruits and vegetables have a little human DNA on them? 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Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (where it is called mitochondrial DNA . Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Ten percent of vegetarian products contained meat. There were also issues with the nutritional content listed . The study also found that two thirds of the samples containing human DNA were advertised as vegetarian and almost 15 percent of . How is anything from the bodies of a hotdog worker getting into the mix? Researchers found issues with 14.4 percent of analyzed samples. 2023 - All Rights Reserved. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Molecular biologists at Clear Labs then extracted the DNA from samples of these products and matched them to the genetic code of different animals. "Yes, humans work at meat processing establishments," he says. about When I Dip, You Dip, We Dip: Healthy Dips For Super Bowl Weekend, about Move Over Oranges! While it may be the time of year when horror stories are passed around, the researchers believe that what theyre finding traces of isnt from chunks of human flesh, but rather from poor quality control standards that are resulting in human DNA entering the products in the forms of saliva, skin fragments (such as dry skin flakes), hair, and broken fingernails. And for most of the Internet, it was enough reason to go into full-on panic mode. Related: .css-16acfp5{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.125rem;text-decoration-color:#d2232e;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:inherit;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-16acfp5:hover{color:#000;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;background-color:yellow;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}5 Gross Guy Habits That Are Good for You, The study comes from Clear Labsa food analytics startup based in Menlo Park, CA which used genomic technology to investigate hot dogs on a molecular level. Clear Labs, a nonprofit group that analyzes food at the molecular level, looked at 345 hot dog and sausage samples marketed under 75 different brands and sold at 10 different retailers. Initial attempts by USA TODAY Network to. You May Also Like 13 Signs You Need to See a Dermatologist Overall, 14.4 percent of the hot dogs and sausages tested by Clear Foods "were problematic," the company said. Last year, scientists were able to extract the DNA of Denisovans - a little-known human population for. "Any organs or edible by-products must be explicitly labeled in the ingredient line and the product name must have a qualifier 'made with variety meats'. If you can stomach it, take a look at this video demonstrating how hot dogs are made. Actually, such items as feces, maggots and rodent hair in processed foods are allowed by the FDA because food growing and manufacturing processes cannot be totally free of non-hazardous, naturally occurring defects. And heres another quandary worth considering. Human DNA in samples "is a sign of lots of touching with human hands," she told ABC News. How is anything from the bodies of a hotdog worker getting into the mix? First of all, let's all take a deep breath. So, sorry, there arent any pig anuses in hot dogs. ", Well, what about blood or skin? What Are These Tiny Red Spots on My Skin (Petechiae)? In response to The Hot Dog Report's findings, Janet Riley, president of the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council stated that Clear Food "has said very little about its sample collection procedure . Eric Spitznagel is a frequent contributor to magazines like Playboy, Esquire, and the New York Times, and was employed for over two decades by the Second City comedy theater, where Stephen Colbert was his Secret Santa _twice. They classified the types of issues as either substitution and hygienic. Major brands, including Butterball, Boar's Head, Hebrew National, Oscar Meyer, Jennie O and Trader Joe's received high marks. But let's say, just for the sake of argument, that Clear Labs' research methods and results can be trusted. Overall, 14.4 percent of the hot dogs and sausages were listed as "problematic" because of substituted or unexpected ingredients or hygienic issues, the media reports stated. Americans eat 20 billion hot dogs and 14 billion servings of sausages each year, according to the council. Andrew L. Milkowski, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Wisconsin, says he's "suspicious about the quality of (Clear Lab's) information. ", "We are unfamiliar with [Clear Food] and have a difficult time determining what to make of their methods or their findings," NHDSC spokesperson Janet Riley told ABC News in a statement today. Pork substitution was an issue in products across the price spectrum being sold at a wide variety of retailers.". Veggie dogs were the worst off, accounting for 67 percent of the hygiene issues and two-thirds of the human DNA found. Human DNA. What are they going to tell us? And for most of the Internet, it was enough reason to go into full-on panic mode. It did not . Overall, 14.4% of the hotdogs and sausages that were tested were listed as "problematic" because of substituted or unexpected ingredients or hygienic issues. But the ingredients of hot dogs aren't nearly as ominous as we're often led to believe. I have been in numerous plants that make hot dogs and other processed meat products across this country, he told us. Even more disturbing, 66 percent of those cases were found in vegetarian-labeled products. Some minor adjustments to your diet might be exactly what you need. Major brands including Butterball, Boar's Head, Hebrew National, Oscar Meyer, Jennie O and Trader Joe's all received high marks. Hot dogs have never been seen as prime cuts of meat, but a new study has found human DNA in some samples. All of the latest health news that actually matters. As for the top dogs, Clear Food recommends national brands Butterball, McCormick, Eckrich and Hebrew National. All that really means is that Clear uses genetic sequencing to figure out just whats in your lunch. As in, homo sapiens. It sounds horrifying. What is DNA? Samples showed chicken, beef, turkey and lamb were found in products that were not supposed to have those ingredients. In 2014 Americans spent $2.5 billion on hot dogs, another $2.74 billion on dinner sausages, and over half a billion on breakfast sausages. is that the scientists found no correlation between price and quality. "It could have come from the person doing the analysis in the lab," says Rentfrow. Remember the last time you were in the produce section of a grocery store? Well, as you hopefully already knew, hot dogs arent something you should be eating at every meal. Four of the six samples that tested positive for human DNA were vegetarian products. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, about 7 billion hot dogs will be consumed in the U.S., and on the Fourth of July more than 150 million hot dogs will be consumed alone. Clear Food is the consumer outreach arm of Clear Labs, a B2B food analytics startup based in California. Is it true that a study found that some hot dog brands contained human DNA? This publicity stunt changes nothing about the fundamental safety of Americas carefully regulated and inspected hot dogs.. A report by California startup Clear Food. Credit: Marek Janta. Sixty-seven percent of hygienic problems found in the report were from vegetarian products. But why bother with store-bought snacks when you can make healthier homemade versions, Calling All Dippers and Chippers! At least not enough to worry about. First published on October 25, 2015 / 10:20 AM. It also found human DNA in 2 percent of its hot dog samples and two-thirds of the vegetarian samples. Hot dog ingredients have long been a source of controversy. Its not like somebody found a pinkie in a Hebrew National. Altogether, 75 different hot dog brands from 10 different retailers were studied. Related: The 26 Hot Dogs Every Man Must Devour. But thats not all. Do you really know whats in your food? We didn't reach out to any of the major hot dog manufacturers, because obviously they would only deny the study's findings. Could Hibiscus Tea be Better than High Blood Pressure Drugs? DNA is not a food safety hazard, says Jonathan A. Campbell, Ph.D., a Meat Specialist and Assistant Professor at Penn State University. Clear Food says the best retailers for hot dogs and sausage products are Target, Walmart and Safeway, and the top brands (in order) are Butterball, McCormick, Ekrich, and Hebrew National, all of which received a Clear Score of 96.