FACT CHECK: Is The WEF Conducting Experiments On Germans By Adding Insects To Food?
A video shared on Facebook purports the World Economic Forum (WEF) is conducting experiments on Germans by adding insects to food.
Verdict: False
The claim is false. A WEF spokesperson denied the claim’s validity in an email to Check Your Fact.
Fact Check:
WEF President Borge Brende said, “we haven’t seen this kind of debt since the Napoleonic Wars” while speaking about global debt at a recent WEF event in Saudi Arabia, according to NBC News. Brende also said, “we cannot get into a trade war” at the same event, the outlet reported.
“The WEF is conducting experiments on German citizens by adding ‘insect derivative ingredients’ to supermarket foods. German citizens are utilizing apps to scan products and identify them. ‘We will not eat the bugs’ has become a reality,” the Facebook video’s caption reads. The video shows an individual scanning multiple food items in a supermarket with a smartphone app and then receiving notifications that the items contain insects.
The claim is false, however. The claim is neither referenced on the WEF’s website nor its verified social media accounts. Likewise, Check Your Fact found no credible news reports to support the claim. In fact, the opposite is true. Logically Facts reported the claim is false via an April 30 article and traced the video back to TikTok. The video stems from an account promoting the Insect Food Scanner app, according to the outlet.
In addition, the outlet indicated that none of the items scanned “contain novel insect powder but rather contain additives that have already been around for decades,” including E904 or shellac and E120 or carmine. (RELATED: Did The Gates Foundation Determine Math Lessons Are ‘Racist?’)
Furthermore, Yann Zopf, a spokesperson for the WEF, denied the claim’s validity in an email to Check Your Fact.
“These claims are entirely baseless. The World Economic Forum is not at all conducting such experiments. Many organizations and individuals are seeing a rise in mis- and disinformation, including the World Economic Forum,” Zopf said.
