What are you really Eating?

One of the exciting aspects of the Internet and with interacting with people from other parts of the world, is that it can enable me to learn via the investigation of tangents prompted by a comment. Personally I can not even remember when I last had a hot dog. To the best of my recollection it was when I was a child. Therefore, I had no idea what was in one.

I have to emphasise that this applies to Britain and Europe, and while via systems like the GATT agreement (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), the rules are very similar across the globe, specifically I can only talk about European regulations here. I place this note here as while I am sure of the information regarding Europe, different rules and regulations apply in other parts of the world.

Anyway a question was raised about what is in a hot dog? In Britain they come under the rules that govern sausages and a sausage has to contain a minimum of 46% forty six percent of meat to be legally called a sausage. As items like hot dogs contain less than this, Hot Dog sausage manufacturers stay within the law by calling the things like Hot dogs or Frankfurters.

I did some digging to try and discover what was permitted and it was not easy. As it seems that manufacturers don't like to admit what garbage they are really feeding us. But looking at the labels and knowing that meat can be twenty five percent connective tissue and twenty five percent fat, fifty percent of the stated meat content may not even be meat then I found two brands that had less than nine percent meat in them.

Well, the question has to be asked what are you really eating?