A video showing artificial eggs being manufactured at a factory is going viral across social media with the claim that plastic eggs are being sold as real eggs in markets in the country. Social media users are expressing outrage at this viral video.
Claim:
The video shows a person scooping out an artificially manufactured substance and pouring it into a mold of an egg. The video is viral with the claim, “Egg factory. Attention may also be in our country.”
The video is being circulated with the claim that these are artificial eggs being sold as real eggs.
Fact Check:
We isolated the keyframes of the viral video using InVid’s Keyframe Analysis tool and conducted a reverse image search which led us to a report published on April 11, 2017.
The report on Soho reads, “The official microblog of the Jiangning Branch of the Nanjing Municipal Public Security Bureau refuted the rumors, saying that this is actually a video of making simulated toy eggs, not “fake eggs pretending to be real eggs and entering the market.”
The report clarified that the viral video shows visuals of making egg-like toys for children.
Further, the article noted that these toys are available on Chinese e-commerce platforms. A screenshot of these toys available on one such e-commerce platform was attached. These products carry a similar logo as on the eggs shown in the viral video.
We also came across a report by Piyao.com published on 31 March 2017. The report reads, “The key evidence to prove that the eggs in the video are actually spoofing toys is the transparent shell of the suspected plastic in the video screen and the yellow commodity label.” The same logo and branding can be seen on the stickers in both instances.
We also checked for advisories issued by the government over similar rumors about such plastic eggs. Similar viral videos were circulated in 2018 regarding plastic eggs. The FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) released a ‘Guidance Note’ on August 8, 2018, to counter plastic eggs rumors.
“Making a fake egg is not anybody’s cup of tea as it would require professional skills to handle the encapsulators that would make fake eggs. It is to simply say that the motivation to create a fake product (egg in this case) for sale is that fakes can be produced at a fraction of the cost of the genuine product, in order to generate more profit. In this case it seems unlikely”, the FSSAI said in its note.
In a press release dated November 27, 2018, CEO of FSSAI, Pawan Agarwal, noted that ‘such news creates fear amongst the public at large and erodes their confidence in the food control system in the country.’
“More recently, a fake video had gone viral on social media related to the presence of melamine in milk, wherein it was maliciously projected that FSSAI had given permission for use of melamine in milk. He pointed out a few such instances including the false scare on issues of plastic eggs and plastic rice.” the FSSAI note reads.
Conclusion:
We found that the viral video showing plastic eggs being manufactured are actually toy eggs made for children. The video has been debunked by Chinese news portals and FSSAI when it initially went viral in 2017. Hence, the viral claim is false.
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.
https://thelogicalindian.com/h-upload/2023/03/06/500x300_230294-new-project-2023-03-06t133748367.webp
Fact Check
2023-03-06 09:53:21.0
Does This Video Show Plastic Eggs Being Sold As Real? No, Viral Claim Is False
