CLAIMS
Shortage of certain foods forced some countries, notably China, to start making eggs from plastic.
VERDICT
This is not true. A few years ago, Indian and Chinese food safety authorities were forced to deny rumours that these countries produce plastic eggs for human consumption. A video circulating on social networks actually is about the production of toy eggs.
LIE DETECTOR’S COMMENTARY
For some time now, short videos of artificial eggs being made from plastic have been circulating on social media. According to the individuals sharing them, they illustrate how some countries, particularly China, are addressing the problem of food shortages by producing plastic eggs.
Several online videos attempt to convey the same message – people are going to be fed artificial food. Some offer mash ups of homemade footage, while others allegedly show mass production of plastic eggs.
The keyword search on the Internet has found the clarification from the Indian Food Safety and Standards Authority reassuring consumers there is no technology or chemicals available to complete the manufacturing of whole eggs. The Authority also pointed out that plastic egg production would not be an economically viable process since normal eggs are available in abundance and at an affordable price. The clarification also contains detailed information on egg quality (here).
In 2018, the same authority also published an online guide, which again debunked the same myth (here).
By separating the video showing the mass production of eggs into individual frames and conducting reverse image searches, a number of articles published on Chinese news portals in 2017 referring to the same video (here, here and here) were found. One of these articles includes an official commentary from the Jiangning branch of the Nanjing Public Security Bureau, denying that the footage shows production of eggs for human consumption. The commentary explains that the video shows the production of toy eggs. Similar-looking products are easily available on the Internet, and the yellow labels shown in the footage prove that these are the same eggs seen in the video. The same labels are attached to the toy eggs sold in e-shops.
This is not the only instance of Internet users being scared into believing they are eating plastic food. Similar rumours about plastic rice (here) and plastic ice-cream (here) have appeared on social media in the past but have been debunked by „Lie Detector“.
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