Andrea Quarracino
What are hot dogs made of? Underneath the ketchup, mustard, or relish, the ingredients are far from appetizing. From human health concerns to animal welfare implications, here’s why it’s best to leave hot dogs off your plate.
Hot dogs are key players in the standard American diet, almost inevitably appearing on the menu at summer cookouts, sporting events, food carts, and cafeterias. But beneath the bun lies a processed meat product with questionable ingredients that stem from factory farms—environments rife with animal abuse. Consuming hot dogs also has serious consequences for human health.
In the United States, processed meats like hamburgers, chicken nuggets, and hot dogs remain popular in spite of the reported risks of consuming them. Hot dogs may be considered an American standard, but the truth about their ingredients and their direct link to the abuse of animals raised for food make a good case for choosing veggie dogs instead.
And more and more people have been doing just that. Joey Chestnut, the world’s #1-ranked competitive hot dog eater, recently made headlines when he endorsed the plant-based meat company Impossible Foods. Chestnut was banned from Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest for his endorsement.
What are hot dogs made of?
Hot dogs are made from the emulsified meat trimmings of chicken, beef, or pork. This meat mixture is blended with other ingredients (like preservatives, spices, and coloring) into a batter-like substance. The emulsified meat is then stuffed into casings, which are typically made from processed collagen or collagen from animal intestines.
Hot dog ingredients
Hot dog ingredients can include:
- Ascorbic acid/sodium ascorbate
- Autolyzed yeast extract
- Beef stock
- Celery powder
- Cherry powder
- Citric acid
- Collagen casing
- Dextrose
- Flavoring
- Hydrolyzed vegetable protein
- Lactate/diacetate
- Lauric arginate
- Maltodextrin
- Modified food starch
- Monosodium glutamate (MSG)
- Natural sheep casing (made from lamb intestines)
- Paprika extract
- Phosphates
- Salt
- Smoke flavoring
- Sodium erythorbate
- Sodium nitrate
- Sorbitol
- Soy protein concentrate
- Spices
- Sugar and corn syrup
- Water
- Yeast extract
Meat trimmings
Trimmings—a term that can mean bits of beef, pork, or chicken—are the primary ingredient in hot dogs. According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (NHDSC), trimmings are “most commonly pieces of meat cut away from steaks or roasts.” The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) gets a bit more specific, reporting that for raw-cooked meat products like hot dogs, “the muscle meat, fat, and non-meat ingredients are first processed raw by grinding, chopping, and mixing. The resulting viscous batter is portioned in sausages or loaves and then subjected to heat treatment, which causes protein coagulation, a firm-elastic texture, palatability, and some degree of bacterial stability.”
The NHDSC also lists “mechanically separated chicken/turkey” as a potential ingredient. This refers to turkey or chicken meat that’s removed from the bone with specialized pressurized machinery—meaning, forcing animal bones through a sieve or similar appliance to remove the meat. “Since mechanically separated chicken or turkey is derived from poultry meat that is close to the bone, it can have slightly higher calcium content when compared to whole muscles,” the NHDSC writes. The USDA requires that mechanically separated ingredients are listed on meat packaging to flag the potentially high calcium content from animal bones.
While the NHDSC also states that “variety meats or organ meats are not typically used in hot dogs,” they acknowledge that the best way to know what kind of meat is in a hot dog is to read the product’s packaging. If the ingredients list “variety meats” or “meat byproducts,” that means organ meats are on board. It’s one thing to be able to check or rule this out when browsing a grocery shelf, but for those purchasing hot dogs from a food vendor, the details of what’s in the meat are far less transparent.
Where does hot dog meat come from?
Meat derived from animals raised for food most often comes from factory farms. On factory farms, animals like pigs, chickens, and cows are treated like products rather than sentient beings, and their living conditions are crowded and inhumane. Animals raised for food are also fed massive quantities of antibiotics to promote growth and prevent infection. All in all, factory farms paint a dismal picture for animal welfare, the environment, and human health.
What gross things are in hot dogs?
Blended with chemicals that hold them together like glue, hot dogs are emulsified meat products that contain preservatives like nitrates. Consuming nitrates leads to an increased risk of cancer, Type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. If this sounds grim, it should: a recent study indicates that eating hot dogs and processed meats can reduce a healthy lifespan by about 36 minutes for every hot dog you eat.
Other gross things in hot dogs include:
- Natural sheep casing made from lamb intestines
- Variety meats: internal organs (like the liver or tongue) other than muscle
- Meat trimmings: a primary ingredient that can contain organ meat, or chicken or turkey meat removed from the bone by mechanical force
- Antibiotics from animal feed on factory farms
How are hot dogs made?
Every processed meat product begins with animals on factory farms. On factory farms, animals like cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys are treated inhumanely in their too-short lives, living in crowded and filthy conditions before they’re slaughtered for meat. Meat from chickens, pigs, cattle, or turkeys can all end up as hot dogs in a factory like those owned by food industry giants Nathan’s Famous, Inc. or Oscar Mayer.
Select meat trimmings
To make hot dogs, selected meat trimmings from chickens, turkeys, pigs, or cattle are ground into a thick paste, then they’re moved into a large-scale mixer to combine with other ingredients.
Blend the ingredients
A high-speed chopper blends the emulsified meat and other ingredients together, creating a dense batter-like substance. This includes preservatives, spices, and food colorants.
Fill the casings
When the hot dog filling is ready, it moves to an automatic stuffing and linking machine. There, a high-pressure machine fills casings with the emulsified meat blend.
Cook the hot dogs
Linking the filled casings is the next step, creating connected strands of hot dogs that move to a smokehouse for cooking or go on to get baked in large-scale production ovens.
Cool hot dogs and remove casing as needed
At this stage, cooked hot dogs get a cold saltwater shower to prepare them for packaging. Then they roll down to an automatic peeling machine to remove their cellulose casings, a rapid process that can move through about 700 hot dogs in a minute.
Package and box for distribution
Lastly, hot dogs go through an inspection process, and then the meat is packaged in plastic casing and shipped to food conglomerates for distribution.
Hot dog facts and statistics
- Americans consume an estimated 20 billion hot dogs each year
- Joey Chestnut holds the world record for the most hot dogs eaten in 10 minutes, eating 83 hot dogs in a 2024 competition
- Meat trimmings are the primary ingredient in hot dogs, and they can include internal organs or other non-muscle meat
- Because hot dogs contain nitrates, eating too many of them can increase the risk of cancer
- Hog farms, especially those located in North Carolina, are notorious environmental offenders
- Hot dogs are detrimental to human health, with one study suggesting that you can lose 36 minutes off a healthy life for every hot dog you eat
What you can do
Producing hot dogs and other processed meats is incredibly detrimental to animals, people, and the planet. Together, we’re creating a healthier, more compassionate world, and we can all help by holding corporations accountable for animal abuse. Join our Fast Action Network to start taking actions—demanding better from food corporations, and adding your voice to a powerful global movement!
