In case anyone at the cookout is wondering, the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (NHDSC) remains adamant that the hot dog is not — and nor should it be described as — a sandwich.
“It’s just a hot dog,” Eric Mittenthal, the chief strategy officer at the Meat Institute and president of the NHDSC, told Nexstar in honor of National Hot Dog Day on July 15. “Throughout their existence, hot dogs have transcended categorization. They are their own masterpiece, not to be confined by the sandwich category.”
Oddly enough, the NHDSC didn’t always feel this way.
The NHDSC first decided in 2015 that the humble hot dog inhabits “a category unto its own,” despite previously siding with the USDA’s vague definition of a “closed-face sandwich” that placed hot dogs in the sandwich category.
“When it first arrived on American shores from Europe in the late 1800s, it was often referred to as a ‘Coney Island Sandwich’ or ‘Frankfurter sandwich,’” the NHDSC wrote of its decision in 2015. “But much like an ‘ice cream sundae’ is simply referred to as a sundae, terminology changes.”
‘Exceeds the sandwich category‘
Then, in 2021, the NHDSC once again reiterated its stance — and claimed that the majority of Americans were in agreement.
That year, in honor of National Hot Dog Day, the NHDSC revealed the results of a self-commissioned survey (in partnership with the Cattleman’s Beef Board and its Beef Checkoff campaign) that found that 57% of respondents agreed with the NHDSC that hot dogs were not sandwiches.
“It’s such a relief that Americans are on the same page on these key hot dog beliefs,” Mittenthal said, per a press release. “As we’ve said time and time (and time) again … a hot dog is NOT a sandwich. It is in a classification of its own that exceeds the sandwich category.”
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It goes without saying that the NHDSC, which was established by the North American Meat Institute in 1994, clearly has a dog in this fight. But that’s not to say they’re the only major mouthpiece for the meat industry. In 2018, Oscar Meyer publicly announced that hot dogs were indeed sandwiches, seemingly for no other reason than to ignite debate on Twitter.
A representative for Oscar Mayer was not immediately available to confirm whether the company is still steadfast in that belief. But on Wednesday, the brand offered up yet another hot take, and its one the NHDSC could presumably get behind too.
“Petition to give everyone the day off for National [Hot Dog] Day,” Oscar Mayer wrote on X.
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