The Cancer Project filed a lawsuit in Essex County, N.J., on Wednesday, asking the court on behalf of three state residents to compel hot dog makers to put a cancer warning label on packages, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The group, a branch of Washington, D.C.-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, wants the label to read: "Warning: Consuming hot dogs and other processed meats increases the risk of cancer."

The Cancer Project is seeking class-action status for the suit. Defendants include Nathan's Famous, Kraft Foods (which owns Oscar Mayer), Sara Lee, Marathon Enterprises and ConAgra Foods (which owns Hebrew National), the Times said.

Nutritionists said in response that the science is more complicated than the Cancer Project implies, and also that such a warning label would not have much effect on public health.

"If we were to evaluate each food for its naturally occurring toxins and eliminate that food, then our food plate would be empty," the Times quotes Roger Clemens, a nutrition expert at USC's pharmacy school, as saying.

In a statement, the American Meat Institute dubbed the lawsuit a "nuisance."

"We hope the court will move quickly to review the science affirming the safety of hot dogs and processed meats and dismiss this lawsuit, " AMI President J. Patrick Boyle said in a release. "While PCRM argues for warning labels on our safe products, the labels would be more appropriately placed on PCRM's Web sites and press releases to alert consumers to their true agenda."

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