Some Fun Facts about Nathan’s Annual Hot Dog Eating Contest

How to be a Competitive Eating Champion

Even if you have been living under a rock for the past 10 years, you probably have heard about the ANNUAL NATHAN’S HOT DOG EATING CONTEST held every July 4th out on Coney Island, New York.  This year is the 94th year, for those of you keeping count.

And thanks to George and Richard Shea, founders of the INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF COMPETITIVE EATING (IFOCE), you’ve also likely seen the ever-expanding hoopla on ESPN, broadcast live.

And since Web Watch wants to be sure that our readers are adequately informed about such monumental occasions, we’re going to share with you these HOT DOG TRIVIA FACTS, courtesy of Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs.

• Every summer, between Memorial Day and Labor Day, American’s will eat 7 billion hot dogs
• San Francisco claims the highest per capita consumption, with each person eating 4.16 hot dogs annually.
• The hot dog came either from Vienna, Austria (the “weiner”) or Frankfurt, Germany (the “frankfurter”) in the 1800′s.
• Americans will spend more than $1.9 billion on hot dog purchases in supermarkets this year.
• The top five markets for retail hot dog sales are New York, Los Angeles, San Antonio/Corpus Christie TX, Baltimore/Washington D.C., and Chicago.
• On July 4th, Americans will consume 150 million hot dogs.
• Joey Chestnut won the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest’s top prize – a mustard yellow champion’s belt for the third year in a row last year when he ate 68 hot dogs in 10 minutes.