10% of Vegetarian Hot Dogs Contain Meat

As much as 10 percent of vegetarian hot dogs may contain meat, according to a new study.

The study, performed by a food analytics startup called Clear Labs said that while 10 percent of vegetarian hot dogs contained meat, 14.4 percent were "problematic," for a number of reasons, CNN reported.

Based on a selection of 21 samples, the study found problems with hygiene in four. In a comparison of vegetarian and traditional hot dogs, the company found 2 percent of traditional hot dogs contained human DNA while two-thirds, or 66 percent, of the vegetarian samples had human DNA.

The company found a number of issues with how hot dogs are labeled and what is actually in them. The nutritional info was often incorrect, port substitution was common, and unlisted ingredients like lamb and chicken also showed up.

Certain companies, like Butterball, Hebrew National, McCormick, and Eckrich scored 96 out 100 on Clear Labs' rating system.

While the discovery of human DNA may sounds horrific, experts interviewed by CNN preached caution. They said that it depends on the type of genetic testing used for the results to be meaningful. Some tests are extremely sensitive and able to pick up even a small number of cells, and this means that the DNA detected by Clear Labs could actually be irrelevant.

The tests done by Clear Labs are proprietary, so it is impossible to say whether they used a highly sensitive test or if they used a test that would have only picked up human DNA if it made up a large percentage of a product.