Have you ever gotten stuck falling, or diving head-first, down a rabbit hole of amazingly satisfying food videos on Facebook or Instagram? For anyone who says they haven’t, well, they’re lying. It’s completely not intentional. You’re just cruising the internet and come across the most beautiful array of ways to decorate a pie or cake that you just can’t stop watching.
This happened to me the other day. I was checking out food videos and simply couldn’t stop until my friend sent me the craziest food video I have ever seen (read till the end to watch the video!). I pressed play and watched cheese get placed in front of a flame and slowly melt while the words, “PROCESSED CHEESE IS DIFFICULT TO MELT!” Well, of course it is, it’s processed.
That one wasn’t too crazy, but the next image that shot across the screen blew my mind and absolutely terrified me. It was a video of rice getting poured into a hot fry pan. A close-up shot shows bits of “rice” turning clear in the pan with the words “Rice is mixed with plastic bits to increase manufacturer profit!”. My jaw dropped. Have I been eating melted plastic whenever I eat rice?! What have I been fooled into eating?! I had to share this video with my fellow foodies, as well as everyone I knew and loved.
Then, something curious happened. I went to share the video with a friend, and a notification came up advising that more media coverage of this topic had been released and that I should check the information before sharing. I had never seen this before when sharing something on Facebook, so naturally, I had to see what this “other media coverage” was.
I clicked on the article and read that the majority of the video, according to this new outlet’s research was absolutely false. Had I just fallen victim to “fake news”? Surely the individuals who posted this video wouldn’t do so if all this information had no legs to stand on.
After doing some reading, it became apparent that the article did quite a good job explaining how most of these facts were false, leading me to wonder if the only way I could get to the bottom of it was to buy every bag of rice available in Canada and the USA and test it. Unfortunately, with a one-year-old at home, I simply do not have the time for such an experiment, but the question still remains, is this video completely false? Have you ever caught a food company trying to cheapen their food for profit? My final question is if this video is completely false, is how can Blossom, the Facebook page which posted this video, feel okay releasing false information into the world, terrifying 2.8 million people and counting?
Check out the questionable video below. What do you think?
