Food rumors keep appearing on social media: what harm do they do?
The Food Sanitation Division also urges the public to maintain "reasonable doubt" toward rumors circulating online; unless they can be confirmed as true, it is better to let rumors stop with the wise and not forward or spread them further. Those who cannot tell true from false can provide the relevant information to the Food Sanitation Division, or go online and enter the information in the interactive section of the "Director-General's Mailbox" on the Department of Health website, where a dedicated person will answer.
"Cola + monosodium glutamate = FM2?" "Preserved fruits contain high levels of sulfur dioxide and cause asthma?" "Eating lemon shrimp will give you arsenic poisoning?" "Half-cooked eggs can be fatal?" "Cola + barbecue = bone cancer?" Online rumors are sensational and frightening; some cite detailed evidence, some speak with great certainty. Who should the public believe?
Chen Shugong, director of the Food Sanitation Division of the Department of Health, pointed out that online rumors are "characterized" by being brief and sensational, and food-related online rumors can roughly be divided into two major categories.
The first is presented in the tone of experts and scholars, or fabricates a very convincing "personal experience," then adds some specious theoretical basis to form one false dietary concept after another. With only a little verification, it is not hard to find that most are fabricated out of nothing. Take "beware of arsenic poisoning when eating lemon shrimp" as an example. To clarify the concern, the Department of Health asked the Poison and Drug Consultation Center of Taipei Veterans General Hospital to search the relevant literature, and no medical report was found about vitamin C causing shrimp poisoning; further analysis of the chemical reaction of eating lemon and shrimp together in a meal also showed no concern of producing arsenic. As for the rumor "Cola + monosodium glutamate = FM2?" verification found no medical report that eating the two together forms a stimulant. Moreover, whether it is cola, apple cider, Paolyta P, or beer, mixing any two of them will not produce stimulant ingredients, let alone FM2.
Another kind of online food rumor targets specific brand operators and spreads messages such as "the drinks sold at a certain chain store can kill people." Not only is it not out of goodwill, it is even malicious slander.
Chen Shugong said that some online rumors are obviously fabricated at a glance, while others may simply be an excessive extension of the experience of a few people. Take "half-cooked eggs can be fatal" as an example. There have indeed been cases abroad of death from eating eggs infected with Salmonella, but the cases were mostly specific groups such as patients and the elderly whose physical condition was relatively poor, so making reckless inferences is inappropriate.
In fact, some rumors can be said to have a long history and, with the spread of the internet, have changed their appearance and come back again. The rumor circulated for more than 20 years that "sausage + Yakult = cancer" transformed online into "bacon sandwich + yogurt causes cancer," and the two use the same hypothetical reasoning and likewise have no medical evidence to support them.
Online rumors are everywhere, and among them those related to food are the most likely to cause panic. To prevent the public from being misled, the Department of Health assigned dedicated personnel to collect and organize more than 20 food-related online rumors, and after adding explanations, posted them in a question-and-answer format on the "Food Sanitation Information Network." Starting today, the public can click to browse and resolve their doubts.
Chen Shugong, director of the Food Sanitation Division of the Department of Health, said that with the widespread use of the internet, all kinds of unverified information spread widely through users' enthusiastic "small favor" of forwarding. Especially when it involves necessary daily dietary issues, it not only causes trouble for the public, but even makes people feel that there are crises in daily diet everywhere and thus causes panic.
Based on the Department of Health's experience with online rumor materials provided by the public, even if rumors leave a person's name and telephone number, most are fabricated or used without authorization; as long as the public actively checks, almost all can be easily refuted. Over the past year, the Department of Health compiled a total of 22 cases of online rumors related to food sanitation and safety that the public and health bureaus had inquired about, asked dedicated personnel to make "judgments" according to scientific principles and provide explanations, and organized them into a question-and-answer format published under the Food Sanitation Division's website for the public to browse and resolve doubts.