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Lips, snouts and tails. There are a lot of popular myths about the ingredients used to make hot dogs, bologna and other processed meats. While those schoolyard assertions are based on fiction, the reality is that many popular ready-to-eat meats contain a wide variety of chemical preservatives, fillers and other artificial ingredients used to improve the product's taste, colour and shelf life.

Although Maple Leaf Foods Inc.'s massive meat recall is focused on a national outbreak of listeriosis, the ongoing public health crisis is prompting new questions about the place of processed convenience meats on tables across Canada.

"I think it will open people's eyes a little bit more as to what they're purchasing in the store and what ingredients are involved," said Stuart Symes, co-owner of Horizon Meats in Calgary, which specializes in products made without chemicals or artificial preservatives.

Butchers say it's not true that leftover parts of animals make it into processed meat, but many chemicals and artificial ingredients do. These are commonly found in lunch meat and other processed goods included in the Maple Leaf recall, such as summer sausage, ham loaf and pepperoni. Nitrates and nitrites are probably the most contentious substances, used to preserve such products.

The preservatives are used mainly to prevent the growth of botulism in food products, but have been linked to increased risks of cancer.

The potential health issues involved with processed meats are so significant that a joint report issued by the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund last year declared that there is "no safe level of consumption" of cold cuts or salted, smoked and cured meats.

Extra sodium and fat are often added to certain deli meats that are emulsified or cured before they're ready for sale. It's a fact many consumers are unaware of, and can eventually take a toll on their health, according to Rosie Schwartz, a consulting dietitian in Toronto.

"You eat some of these processed meats in sandwiches ... and the sodium content is your whole day's sodium requirement in one meal," she said. "I think having minimal amounts of cured and smoked meat, for example, is probably a good idea."

Some processing plants also add cereals or bread crumbs to deli meats during the emulsification process to increase the volume of what they're selling, Mr. Symes said.

Ms. Schwartz said that some processed and deli meats are better than others. Health-conscious consumers should avoid products like salami, bologna and turkey or ham loaves, which often contain added fat and sodium. Shoppers should also stay away from bacon and sausages, which are often cured and highly processed. Those who insist on buying ready-to-eat meats would do best to look for products such as real turkey or chicken breast, she said.

"If this is what your mainstay is, I think we need to be looking at changing how we eat," Ms. Schwartz said.

The ongoing outbreak of listeriosis in Canada is having major repercussions across the country and should make people think twice about the kinds of food decisions they are making, said Frank DiGenova, co-owner of Toronto's Butcher By Nature, which prepares meats without nitrates or other artificial preservatives or additives.

"You go into a store, you go look at pepperoni. It has a best-before date of a year and a half later. Just that alone right there, what does that tell you?" he said.

But one of the major problems is that people have become reliant on the convenience of ready-made lunch meat, Mr. DiGenova said.

"A lot of people will eat it because it's fast and easy. Let's face it, it's everything that the whole world's about," he said. "That's what the problem is. Everyone's looking at it from a convenience perspective as opposed to health."