You might never eat another hot dog again after you hear about all the reasons that tons of frankfurters were forced off store shelves in this hot dog recall roundup.
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00:00You might never eat another hot dog again after you hear about all the reasons that
00:04tons of Frankfurters were forced off store shelves in this hot dog recall roundup.
00:11Sometimes massive hot dog recalls are notable enough to make news across the pond. When
00:15Kent Quality Foods recalled 280,000 pounds of hot dogs and sausages in 2018, it made
00:21waves all the way over in the European market. The offending element was hydrolyzed soy protein,
00:27a food-safe ingredient used as a filler in many meat-based foods. In this instance, it
00:32was part of the spice blend included in the sausages, but the label neglected to mention
00:37it. Since soy is an allergen, the safest path forward for Kent was to withdraw the product
00:42from store shelves.
00:43To be extra safe, any items where cross-contamination with the soy ingredients may have occurred
00:48were also included in the recall. The issue was discovered in May 2018 and impacted products
00:53with label dates between September 9, 2017 and April 29, 2018.
00:59One of the key features of hot dogs is that they arrive in grocery stores already cooked,
01:03which means that they're food-safe for a heat-up-at-home-without-a-big-to-do. But when Oklahoma City-based producer
01:09Wilson Food Corp. let their hot dogs out before they were fully cooked in July 1994, a recall
01:14was necessary. So the company announced that 114 tons, or 228,000 pounds, of Wilson's Hot
01:21Dogs and Corn King's Jumbo Franks, manufactured in its Arkansas plant, should be pulled back
01:26after not being fully cooked prior to packaging.
01:29This wasn't the first time that Wilson was involved in a large food recall because of
01:33undercooking. A year earlier, the company recalled 20 tons of hot dogs for the same
01:38reason. And later in 1994, Wilson enacted a similar recall on its undercooked ham products.
01:45When the Sara Lee Company recalled approximately 15 million pounds of its frankfurters and
01:51other contaminated meats in December 1998 at a cost of $76 million, it was due to a
01:57serious health hazard, specifically listeria contamination, which led to the deaths of
02:0215 people. It also sickened more than 80 others and caused six women to miscarry. The recall
02:08even resulted in a federal criminal charge against Sara Lee, to which the plant pleaded
02:13guilty three years later. Penalties included a $3 million donation to food safety research.
02:19And this wasn't the only time that Sara Lee experienced a significant hot dog recall.
02:23This other one wasn't anywhere near as significant, though, as the company pulled back 34,500
02:28pounds of its ballpark Franks in March 2000, also for potential listeria contamination.
02:33With no reported cases of illness this time, Sara Lee was thankfully able to get ahead
02:38of any potential crisis, thanks to a military laboratory inspection performed on a package
02:42of Franks received at an Army commissary.
02:46In 2017, Subret had to recall 7 million pounds of hot dogs when customers reported finding
02:52pieces of bone and cartilage in them. There are certain unpleasant facts about hot dogs
02:57in general that you probably don't want to think about while biting into them, but usually
03:01you don't have to worry about getting bone fragments in your mouth. Alas, that wasn't
03:05the case in this situation.
03:07Do not send squirrel bones. Thank you."
03:11The offending dogs were produced at Marathon Enterprises Inc.'s Bronx Meat Processing Facility
03:15and distributed around the United States. Subret may not be the most familiar brand
03:19name in grocery stores, but its presence in street corner carts bearing its famous blue
03:23and yellow umbrellas means that plenty of Frank fans have easy access to them on a daily
03:28basis.
03:29It wasn't a single incident that caused the contamination, as hot dogs produced between
03:33March 17th and July 4th, 2017, were all subject to the recall.
03:38When you study the history of food recalls, you become acutely aware of the danger of
03:42mislabeling products. Cityline Foods ran into a nasty case of this in November 2014, when
03:48nearly 1.2 million pounds of its pretzel dogs had to be recalled. The food additive and
03:53known allergen soy lecithin had been used as a releasing agent on production surfaces,
03:59but no warning was given on the wrappers, which was a problem for consumers with soy
04:03allergies.
04:04In addition to the Cityline Foods-branded items, the company's products were also distributed
04:08to vendors such as Auntie Anne's and packaged as Nathan's Famous Pretzel Dogs. According
04:13to the USDA website, out of almost 1.2 million pounds of pretzel dogs, the quantity recovered
04:18was 281,790 pounds.
04:23Bar S is one of the power players in the hot dog world, so it was a big problem in 2016
04:28when an incident necessitated a recall of 372,684 pounds of packaged hot dogs due to
04:35the potential presence of listeria in the chicken and pork franks, as well as corn dogs.
04:40This incident involved five different packages of hot dog and corn dog products produced
04:44over a four-day period in July 2016. Though no illnesses were reported from any customers,
04:50the plant where the dogs were processed was undoubtedly the site of listeria exposure.
04:55Bar S opted to voluntarily recall the items before any trouble ensued to protect its customers
05:00and keep its reputation intact.
05:03When you hear the word Nathan's, chances are that you think of the most competitive hot
05:07dog eaters in the world. However, even Joey Chestnut can't boast of having downed 210,606
05:14pounds of processed meat at the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest.
05:17But that is indeed how much the beloved hot dog factory had to round up after consumers
05:22reported finding metal fragments mixed in with their frankfurters. Obviously, that's
05:26not what you hope when slathering on the relish and ketchup.
05:30It's like thanks, but no thanks.
05:32Three complaints of metal found in the packages launched the situation, driving Nathan's to
05:36recall the hot dogs that were produced on January 26, 2017. As luck — or lack thereof
05:42— would have it, the recall was announced on May 22, 2017, which just so happened to
05:47be one week before Memorial Day. Shoppers were warned to check their packages before
05:52starting their cookouts to see if the codes and dates on their dogs matched up with the
05:56items in question. Fortunately, there were no reports of injury or ingestion of the metal
06:01pieces.
06:03Maybe you used to wish that you were an Oscar Mayer wiener when you were growing up. Heck,
06:08maybe you still do. But you might change your tune when you find out that 96,000 pounds
06:12of Oscar Mayer hot dogs were recalled in April 2014.
06:16Due to an unfortunate packaging error, the company's cheese dogs were wrapped in labels
06:20for the Classic Dogs. Because the Classic Dogs don't contain any dairy content like
06:25the Cheese Dogs, customers with allergies and intolerances were at risk of getting sick
06:29without realizing the risk, so Oscar Mayer went ahead and collected the mispackaged dogs.
06:34The issue was noticed by a sharp-eyed customer who alerted Kraft, Oscar Mayer's parent company.
06:39Unfortunately, the packages had been distributed around the United States, making this recall
06:43quite the significant undertaking.
06:47It may have been mini-corndogs that were recalled by Foster Farms in 2023, but the quantity
06:51of the product was anything but tiny. The company hauled back 76,961 pounds of its tiny
06:58breaded sausages due to customer complaints of a foul odor, a wonky appearance, and a
07:03bad taste. This combination added up to significant spoilage and could have resulted in illness
07:08for anyone who ate the corndogs.
07:10The product has an odor.
07:12If anyone did end up getting sick, though, their complaints weren't registered to the
07:16United States Department of Agriculture.
07:18With the recall limited to 1.83-pound bags containing 40 battered chicken franks, it
07:23might have seemed like an easy effort, but the product had been distributed throughout
07:27the United States. Thus, instructions were issued for customers to toss out any bags
07:31in their freezers or take them back to the point of purchase for a refund.
07:35Additionally, stores were notified to pull stock from freezers to avoid further sales
07:39and minimize fallout from inadvertently putting consumers at risk.
07:43A.W. Farms undertook quite the hefty recall in July 2024, when 6,900 pounds of its packaged
07:50sausages went out the door without undergoing a required federal inspection. Though the
07:55Kentucky-based company experienced no reports of adverse effects from consumption of the
07:59hot dogs, the inspection hitch was enough of a problem for a recall to be necessary.
08:05Inspection was restricted to Ohio and West Virginia, where the hot dogs were sent to
08:08hotels and restaurants, thereby bypassing the general grocery store customer. Still,
08:13anyone who may have eaten the dogs in those locations could have encountered serious issues
08:17from undetected contaminants that may have been caught during the inspection. So, out
08:22of an abundance of caution, A.W. Farms urged kitchens with the suspect dogs in their possession
08:27to either throw them away or return them to their place of purchase.
08:31In July 2023, Purdue Premium Meats sent out products with undeclared allergens. Specifically,
08:37the company's Brookside Smoked Sausages contained milk, which wasn't declared on the packaging,
08:42despite its status as an allergen. Once the error was discovered, the company put out
08:46a warning regarding the 3,384 pounds of franks that didn't make the grade but entered the
08:51distribution chain regardless.
08:53With distribution contained to just Ohio, there was only a single state involved in
08:57the recall process. No reports of injury or illness were documented, which was incredibly
09:02fortunate, considering that the recall coincided with Fourth of July celebrations. Shoppers
09:06were warned to check their packages and throw away or return any Brookside dogs that fit
09:11the profile noted by the lot and product codes, as well as the sell-by date.
09:16The history of food recalls would lead you to believe that metal contamination is an
09:20unfortunately common peril in the world of hot dog production.
09:23Get all the metal you can find!
09:25Just ask Vienna Beef, which recalled 2,030 pounds of its packaged franks in May 2019.
09:31A Class 1 recall was issued by the Food and Drug Administration because of metal content
09:36at levels that indicated the occurrence of potentially serious health issues. All products
09:41in the recall were skinless beef franks. The metal-bearing dogs were in 10-pound restaurant-sized
09:46cases sent to eateries in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana, which helped the company zero
09:52in on the boxes in question and get them back easily. There was no retail involvement,
09:56which meant that grocery store shoppers weren't at risk, and fortunately, no subsequent issues
10:00were reported by consumers who may have frequented the affected restaurants.
10:05In September 2024, Dearborn Sausage Company was forced to recall nearly 2,000 pounds of
10:10hot dogs due to an unintentional label swap. The hot dogs, which had been shipped to Ohio,
10:16contained undeclared pork and soy elements, neither of which were noted on the packaging.
10:20Beef wieners ended up being labeled as beef and pork, while the beef and pork wieners
10:24were labeled as beef only, causing confusion that customers likely wouldn't have been able
10:29to detect on their own.
10:31Though Dearborn hoped to avoid injury and illness with the recall, there were also more
10:34complex reasons at play. Soy is a known allergen that is easy enough to avoid when it's mentioned
10:40on a list of ingredients. Items containing pork are unable to be considered kosher or
10:45halal, which would compromise the strictness of anyone following those disciplines. So,
10:49the recall was issued, and thankfully, no reports of illness or injury were reported.