Redesigning the Hot Dog!

By : Stuart | 0 Comments | On : February 22, 2010 | Category : General

Fair warning this is a food rant! A group of intelligent pediatricians pooled their brain matter together to push for the redesign of the hot dog. This is big news today as it made the nightly national news on every broadcast. To be fair, they exposed the hot dog as a choking threat and asked for food labeling, recalls, a choking incident reporting system and more.

It appears that this announcement must mean that we are getting dumber as a society. An advertising campaign with stimulus money should be started to tell us not to let our children play with fire, don’t leave babies on the floor with a rottweiler, and whatever you do don’t feed your young child a hot dog. I know we have to get a license before we drive but there is no such requirement for being a parent. However, if we pause a moment and use some common sense all our young infants might be safer.

A call for labeling – Last I looked I did not see a warning label on my stove. Here a young child can turn a knob that will reach a roaring 15,000 BTU. But look, I am not really against putting a label on a hot dog package. A nice reminder that if you are going to give one to a young child cut it up first but what about other food. Do we now need to label carrots, cucumbers, zucchinis, parsnips, radishes, and that is just a small list of vegetables. What about the tootsie rolls, chicken nuggets, bagel bites etc… So I have now come full circle again back to common sense.

Calling for a recall of certain food products or a redesign of a hot dog is a ridiculous request. The hot dog is an American icon. In the 70’s Americans grew up with slogans like “baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet”. In my college days they were a staple for the constrained budget often referred to as tube steaks. It just made them sound more expensive. Changing the hot dog; I think not!

So what is my solution to the problem. In these days of partisanship can I compromise with these doctors and save the hot dog. Sure put a label on but what about the other stuff. Education might be a better idea as I might be to hopeful on the common sense approach. Even better yet, pool 1% of all the income of pediatrician and obstetricians into an advertising campaign similar to those run by the Ad Council. Every time someone has a baby they get a pamphlet (see below) about the hazards. Provide the same pamphlet to pediatrician offices. Make it something catchy so people will read it. Even better, have the pharmaceutical companies donate 1% of their advertising space to help educate our young parents on the risks. I think we have all heard enough about, you know Via_g_a!