Authors
Vaibhav is a part of Newschecker’s English team, where he spots and debunks all kinds of misinformation, making the rounds on the internet. A Journalism graduate from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, he holds an M.A degree in Philosophy and an M.Phil from Delhi University.
A screenshot of the website of chocolate giant Cadbury is going viral on social media. The viral screenshot reads ‘’Please note, the gelatin used in the ingredients of our product is certified Halal and is sourced from the finest beef.” Users sharing the screenshot claim that Cadbury is making Hindus in India eat beef through their products without their knowledge. Newschecker found this claim to be untrue.
Among the users who shared the screenshot is one @Shiv_1630, along with the hashtag #BoycottCadbury.
Newschecker found similar claims on Twitter with similar captions.
Fact Check /Verification
We started our investigation by analysing the screenshot carefully and noticed that the URL of the website states that it is from a different country. Upon visiting the URL, we found that the domain belongs to Cadbury Australia’s website and not Cadbury India.
The website clearly states “Please note, if any of our Australian products contain gelatine in the ingredients, the gelatine we use is halal certified and derived from beef.”
We started looking through Cadbury’s social media accounts to find out if there was a clarification from the organisation on the same and discovered a tweet by Cadbury’s official Twitter account that was connected to the viral claim. The tweet was posted on 18th July, 2021 indicating that the claim had gone viral then as well.
Cadbury said in its tweet, “All products manufactured and sold in India are 100% vegetarian. This is confirmed by the green icon on the product package. As you can well imagine, negative posts like these damages consumer confidence in our well-respected and loved brands.”
Under the Food Safety & Standards (Packaging & Labelling) Regulations, 2011, a green dot icon indicates that the packaging carrying the icon contains vegetarian food.
“Every package of Vegetarian Food shall bear a declaration to this effect by a symbol and colour code as stipulated below for this purpose to indicate that the product is Vegetarian Food. The symbol shall consist of a green colour filled circle, having a diameter not less than the minimum size specified in the Table below, inside the square with green outline having size double the diameter of the circle…” the website states.
Conclusion
Newschecker’ investigation reveals that the viral claim that Cadbury products in India contain beef is false. The screenshot which mentions the ingredients of gelatine made from beef is from the Cadbury Australia website.
Result: False
Our Sources
Cadbury Australia website
Tweet by Cadbury India on 18th July, 2021
FSSAI website
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Authors
Vaibhav is a part of Newschecker’s English team, where he spots and debunks all kinds of misinformation, making the rounds on the internet. A Journalism graduate from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, he holds an M.A degree in Philosophy and an M.Phil from Delhi University.
