The hot dog news from Coney Island is hard to swallow.
Joey Chestnut, perennial winner of the annual July 4th Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Competition, is out of this year’s beef barf over a deal he made to represent a different weiner brand, The Post has learned.
The brand is Impossible Foods, according to sources.
The leading maker of meatless “meats” is known for its Impossible Burger which contains a laboratory-synthesized substance called “heme.”
It recently launched a frankfurter impostor that’s “made from plants.”
California-born Chestnut has won it 16 times, including every year since 2016.
He gobbled a world record 76 dogs and buns in 2021 and kept his title with a paltry 62 down the hatch last year.
A rep for Major League Eating (MLE), which Nathan’s sanctions to run the event, said the organizers bent over backwards to meet Chestnut’s various other demands.
They even agreed to let him participate in a rival Labor Day dog-eating fest to be taped for TV as long as no hot dog brand was mentioned.
But they said they drew the line on letting Chestnut pitch for a different hot dog brand.
“The two sides could still come to a resolution before July 4, but it depends on Joey,” an insider said.
“He’s the Michael Jordan of competitive eating. But imagine if Michael Jordan said to Nike, ‘I love being the face of Nike but I want to do commercials for Adidas too,” the source said.
