Bad News for Hot Dog Lovers

Recent studies done by Mirvish and his colleagues are reported in the journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry has some bad news for all Hot Dog lovers. Their study indicates that hot dogs may contain DNA-mutating compounds which can boost one’s risk for cancer.Extracts from hot dogs bought from the supermarket, when mixed with nitrites, resulted in what appeared to be these DNA-mutating compounds. When added to Salmonella bacteria, the extracts treated with nitrites doubled to quadrupled their normal DNA mutations in the gut might boost the risk for colon cancer, the researchers explained.

And looking at various brands it seems that in certain brands there is an up to 240-fold variation in levels of these compounds. “One could try and find out what the difference in manufacturing techniques are between the brands, and if it’s decided these things are a hazard, one could change the manufacturing methods,” researcher Sidney Mirvish, a chemist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, told LiveScience.

“I won’t say you shouldn’t eat hot dogs,” Mirvish said. Future research will feed hot dog neat to mice to see if they develop colon cancer or precancerous conditions, he explained.