What"s REALLY in your hotdog? You might never eat one again after watching this...

By

Anna Hodgekiss

|

They are a staple at sports games, an American favourite and, many people would argue, a delicious guilty pleasure.

But what REALLY goes into a hotdog – and if you saw how it was made, would you be put off for life? 

These gruesome images show a hotdog production plant – and the various stages of manufacturing aren’t pretty.

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Recorded for the How It’s Made programme on the Discovery Channel, they show the dregs of pork, beef and chicken being ground together, reduced quite literally to a pulp and then re-formed into a dog.

As the programme explains, hotdogs are made from trimmings of meat left over after cutting steaks and pork chips.

These are ground in the same way as hamburger meat, pushing the cuts of meat through metal plates so it resembles mince.

The processed chicken trimmings – which resemble clay – are then added to the mix, along with salt, starch and flavourings.

Once water is sprayed into that vat, the images become even more stomach churning, resembling ice cream or mud.

Corn

syrup is added for a touch of sweetness before the mixture is pureed to

a ‘fine emulsion,’ producing the stomach-churning image below.

Air is then vaccumed out of the mix before it is pumped into cellulose casings.

Even at this stage, hotdogs are fast food. As the programme explains, it takes just 35 seconds to make enough hotdogs to span a football field twice.

In one shift at the factory, a staggering 2.5 million hotdogs will be produced.

But the real question – how do they get that more-ish flavour? A liquid ‘smoke shower’ before they are baked – followed by a good dousing of salty water before they are packaged.

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Comments (674)

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dan,

London,

11 minutes ago

“Once water is sprayed into that vat, the images become even more stomach churning, resembling ice cream.” I can’t say that I find the look of ice cream “stomach churning”.

Classic City Guy,

Athens- Georgia, United States,

15 minutes ago

I am surprisingly not bothered by this!

Ettamogah,

Fonyod,

17 minutes ago

And the problem is??

Gallowglass,

London, United Kingdom,

23 minutes ago

Nothing new there, DM. They always say, never work in a sausage factory, or you’ll never want to eat a sausage again. And we go on eating them, with the greatest pleasure. Remember Humphrey Bogart? “A hot dog at the game is better than roast beef at the Ritz.”

Justinian,

Buffalo,

23 minutes ago

Sorry DM, I am still eating hot dogs! Yummy!

LPSC,

Halifax – Canada, Canada,

25 minutes ago

So so gross but god they taste so good…….

Liberal-Libertarian,

Liverpool, United Kingdom,

25 minutes ago

just makes me want to eat a few hot dogs

Micky Blue,

Liverpool Uk,

27 minutes ago

Open your eyes people, Most processed meat is made this way. This is probably the nicer looking ones I’ve seen aswel

- LoadofDribble, Stoke on trent, United Kingdom, 19/03/2014 13:07. What does “aswel” mean ?

albertini,

Manchester, England,

29 minutes ago

I want a hotdog now.

leopard_84,

Birmingham UK,

31 minutes ago

Its all the same thing…we chew meat off bones…and at least the animal isn’t being wasted! Love them!!

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What"s REALLY in your hotdog? You might never eat one again after watching this...