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Fact Check
A video showing a man peeling a banana and extracting white worms from the fruit is widely shared on social media claiming, ‘Bananas containing poisonous worms has reached the market.’ Newschecker’s investigation found the claim to be false and the video is not from India.
The video has been overlapped with French text that translates to, ‘take a good look before you eat.’ A man can be seen extracting several long-white worms which are claimed to be ‘Helicobacters, which can cause brain death in people.’
Newschecker received several requests from users on its WhatsApp helpline number (+91 9999499044), to check the veracity of this image.
To check the veracity of the viral video, Newschecker ran a reverse image search on a few keyframes from the video and found several links to articles written in Persian and Arabic language. This indicated that the video has been widely shared in other countries too.
On running a keyword search for ‘worms in banana’ we found an article by Khaleej Times, a Dubai-based daily newspaper. The article reports, on the clarification given by UAE authorities on the worms in the bananas video.
Further, we found a Tweet by a UAE-based media house, ‘UAE BARQ’ that carried a statement by the Abu Dabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority.
The video is false and contains misleading information as “Helicobacter is a type of bacteria and not a worm,” reads the statement.
Fahad Alkhodairy, a Riyadh-based Carcinogens researcher also tweeted about the viral video saying the rumors are false.
Speaking to Newschecker, the authorities in the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) clarified that the claims made in the video are false. We will update our fact-check as and when we have further information from the FSSAI.
According to Food and agriculture organization, a specialized body under the United Nations, India is the largest producer of bananas in the world with 29 million tons per year on average between 2010 and 2017.
The viral video of worms in bananas is neither true nor is it from India.
Statement from Abu Dabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority
Confirmation from FSSAI
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June 1, 2020
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