Source:  Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 2/22/10

The official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics has a new policy calling for the federal Food and Drug Administration to require warning labels on foods — including hot dogs — proven to be a choking risk for children, or for manufacturers to redesign the food items to minimize the risk.

In a policy statement posted on its Web site, the journal, Pediatrics, notes that choking kills more than 100 U.S. children 14 years or younger each year. Of the 141 choking deaths in kids in 2006, 61 were food-related, the statement says.

Hot dogs are included in a category of foods considered to be high risk for choking, along with raw carrots, grapes and apples, hard candies, popcorn, peanuts and marshmallows. Pediatricians encourage parents to cut these foods into portions too small to get caught in a child' throat, but also believe that the extra step of a warning label will prevent deaths.

Redesign the label, or redesign the food

Federal law requires choking warning labels on some toys, including small balls, balloons and games with small parts. Several efforts to pass federal label legislation for food through Congress have failed. If not labeling, then the academy says the food industry should reformulate the items, or avoid shapes and sizes that pose choking risks.

The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council always has echoed the pediatricians' recommendation to slice hot dogs into small pieces for young children, remove the casings if they're present, and follow other safety guidelines, notes the council's president, Janet Riley.

But before labeling becomes a federal requirement, Riley says, a study should evaluate the effectiveness of choking-hazard labels that already exist; she estimates that about half of the packages sold in the hot dog category already carry choking warnings.

"Before we mandate labels, we want to know if they actually work," Riley says.

Crumbly hot dogs

As for redesigning the iconic meat product, she says, "We (processors) can do anything, but do you want to pay the extra cost of having them pre-cut, when hot dogs are a value product to begin with?" Hot dogs can be reformulated to more easily crumble, "but will that satisfy people?" she asks, rhetorically. "Consistency is part of the hot dog's appeal."

The hot dog council has already committed to producing a consumer video on safely preparing hot dogs for consumption by small children.

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