Building a Better Hot Dog

“If you were to take the best engineers in the world and asked them to design a perfect plug for a child’s airway, you couldn’t do better than a hot dog.”

So, the American Academy of Pediatricians have called for the redesign of the hot dog. And since its an entirely processed product, any shape is game. The folks at Fast Company set off to redo the hot dog, with these criteria:

• Esophagus-sized cylinders and spheres = bad, very bad
• Fit within existing buns for “authentic”-ish experience
• Look for opportunities [to] increase sense of play
• Enhance condiment-to-hot dog engagement

After thinking through the designs below, they came up with the spiral dog above, and did a mock-up in green Play-doh.

It really challenges us to remember exactly what it is we put it our bodies…that is, if you eat hot dogs.

Extreme Makeover: Weiner Edition [via]