THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 3, 1996 TAG: 9607020077
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
LENGTH: 67 lines
TUBE STEAKS. Foot longs. Wieners. Frankfurters.
Whatever the name, Americans have had a romance with the hot dog since the turn of the century. But these days, hot dog lovers have as many choices in the kind of dog they buy as they do in what to put on the dog.
Buffalo, tofu, low-fat, nonfat . . . the hot dog is learning a new trick - how to be lean.
When mandated food labels were attached to prepared foods two years ago, people finally saw what they didn't want to know: that standard hot dogs, a product of the beef and pork industries, were loaded with fat.
Since 1992, when Healthy Choice introduced one of the first low-fat hot dogs, there has been an explosion of low-fat, no-fat and vegetarian dogs.
According to the New Product News, an industry magazine, 19 new frankfurter products were introduced in 1995.
Oscar Mayer, the largest hot dog manufacturer in the nation, led the pack with the first fat-free frank in 1995, says Kent Farley, the company's category director.
In this first year of fat-free hot dogs, consumption grew at 70 percent, Farley says, without stealing too many people from the regular hot dog ranks.
Overall, hot dog consumption rose about 2 percent, he says. The ``ultra healthy'' category of hot dogs - that's anything from 97 percent fat-free to fat-free - was the fastest-growing segment of the hot dog category.
``Consumers want something that tastes good and is healthy for them,'' says Jonna Glaser of Smithfield Foods. The Virginia company is developing a nonfat hot dog.
Locally, Farm Fresh offers buffalo dogs from Blue Ridge Buffalo Products. Though buffalo dogs contain 8 grams of fat, that's low compared to turkey, chicken and beef franks.
Bob Linsmier, owner of Blue Ridge Buffalo Products, says, ``Buffalo is not only more nutritious, but it has a richer, sweeter taste than beef.
``They are cousins to the cow, but people think just because buffalo are big and hairy that the meat would be tough. It's not.''
Not brave enough to try buffalo? You have other options.
The advent of vegetable dogs has made summertime cookouts more bearable for vegetarians.
Harris Teeter and Hannaford stores in Virginia Beach and Norfolk offer vegetable and tofu varieties.
Smart Dogs is a fat-free vegetarian hot dog. Wonder Dogs is an all-natural vegetarian dog containing 1 gram of fat. Tofu Pups are cholesterol-free, low-sodium and have 2.5 grams of fat per serving.
Yet some folks won't give up traditional hot dogs.
Charles Greenhood, owner of Wiener World in Portsmouth, says, ``Nothing is on the market right now that compares in taste and quality to a good all-beef hot dog.''
And at Norfolk's Harbor Park, all-beef and kosher dogs are the only two choices. But that doesn't seem to slow sales, says Mike Jones, assistant general manager of Service America, which runs the park's concessions.
More than 288,000 dogs are sold at Harbor Park each season, Jones says. That's enough hot dogs to circle the bases 400 times if you placed them end to end.
What's a ball game without a hot dog, healthy or not? MEMO: Editorial assistant Karen Santos contributed to this report from
Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information Services. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by HEALTHY CHOICE
Chart
What's in a Dog? by CNB