Caution: may contain mystery meat

Clear Labs, a California based company that analyzes food through genetic sequencing, found hygienic problems in 15% of 345 varieties of hot dogs and sausages sold regularly in supermarkets. The new report traced meat in many vegetarian products. Also, some vegetarian hot dogs were found to contain human DNA and 10 percent of these hot dogs were found with traces of meat.  

“I feel that you should definitely check the labels because it’s good to know what’s in your food before consuming it,” sophomore Sydney Sancho said.

In addition, a variety of vegetarian products were found to have labels with higher protein levels than they possessed in reality. One product contained less than 2.5 times the amount of protein labeled.

“It makes me trust them [manufacturers] less,” senior Lauren Lipsky said. “[I] want to change my eating habit to something that doesn’t consist of that much processed vegetarian products and instead natural products.”

Trader Joe’s’ soy chorizo was labeled the healthiest processed vegetarian product in the study.

However, many are skeptical of this new study’s findings of human DNA. Melinda Wilkins, a professor from Michigan State University specializing in food safety, doesn’t see the results as significant. She believes the human DNA found may be insignificant and their results inaccurate due to the lack of quantifying data provided. The percentage may be deceptive, making the amounts appear larger than they actually are.