Not where I live...
Most commercial hot dogs in Montreal/Quebec are made by a handfull of companies. All of these companies form and cook their weiners in a plastic casing then cut and peel the casings before packaging. When you look at a hot dog closely it has a faint line along the length of it, that's where the knife cut the casing.
Rumours say hot dogs are made of <lips and a$$holes>. Not entirely true. They are made of MDM, mechanically deboned meat or mechanically separated meat which, is composed of necks, tails, joints that are crushed then the meat is squeezed thru a screen which retains the bone grits. They used to use chicken wings and pork ribs but both have become hot food items and expensive.
Other meat byproducts are cows stomachs. The rest of the ingredients are mostly binders e.g. starch, soy protein, gums, etc..
I do not know if collagen (gelatin) casings can be considered natural in the US.
Luc H.
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