These food facts are mostly incorrect or misleading

A video claiming to show “shocking secrets of the food industry” has been shared hundreds of times on social media.

However, some of the claims are incorrect, while others are misleading.

Firstly, the video shows wax being washed off an apple and it claims that shops buy apples that are coated in wax. While it is true that wax is added to apples to extend shelf life, apples are naturally coated in a fruit wax that is lost after picking and washing. The wax added by producers causes no health issues in humans. Apples are also not the only fruit or vegetable to go through this process—things like lemons, cucumbers, and peppers are also commonly waxed.

Next, a white napkin is shown to turn orange when soaked in orange soda, removing the food colouring, and later in the video, a bottle of Mountain Dew is filtered to remove the colour.

It’s true that sodas, soft drinks, and a myriad of other food products contain artificial colouring and that these are listed on products. In the UK, the government and the EU issues strict guidelines around what can be added to food. Some artificial colours have also specifically been linked to hyperactivity in children.

As pointed out by Snopes, the next part of the video shows a cupcake being washed and broken apart until only a stringy substance is left. The video incorrectly suggests these are “synthetic fibres”. Snopes identified the substance as gluten (you can see gluten behaving in a similar manner in this video). Gluten occurs naturally in many foods, including flour based cupcakes, and for everyone apart from those with coeliac disease or a gluten sensitivity, is fine to consume.

The video also shows a number of food products being mixed with iodine, including two types of mayonnaise and cottage cheese. As correctly shown in the video, iodine turns black when it comes into contact with starch. But the video then seems to claim that mayonnaise containing starch is “harmful”.

This is incorrect. Starch is a naturally occurring carbohydrate in plants and, far from being harmful to consume, is recommended as part of a healthy, balanced diet.

Another part of the video includes someone cutting open an instant noodle cup to reveal empty space below the dried noodles. It’s not clear what point the video is making here. This space helps with cooking and transportation and allows the noodles the space to expand when they are cooked.  

There is a test in the video that shows both butter and margarine being mixed in hot water. It then says that high-quality butter is made from cream or milk while margarine is made from palm oil and doesn’t melt. Again it’s not clear what point is being made here; it’s correct that butter and margarine are different things. Butter is a dairy product made up from primarily animal fats, while margarine is primarily vegetable fats (not just palm oil, although most kinds of margarine available in the UK do contain some palm oil). While we do not know the brands of butter or margarine used in the video, it is most likely that their different behaviour in hot water is due to different melting points.

The video also shows a test for “natural honey” (honey that has not been diluted with sugar syrup). The video incorrectly suggests that if honey swirled in water reveals a honeycomb pattern, it suggests this shows the honey is pure as the honey’s “genetic memory” is being revealed.

A honeycomb-like pattern can appear if you mix honey in water, but this isn’t because honey has a genetic memory.

It is correct that some cheaper honey products (or “fake honey”) are mixed with syrups, and food standards authorities can undertake scientific tests to detect this. But scientists have questioned the reliability of the water method from this video (and many other DIY honey “purity tests” found online), as natural honey has a wide range of characteristics.

Diluted honey is still safe to eat and all ingredients should be listed on the packaging.

In summary, this video purports to show concerning facts about the food we eat, while in truth almost all the claims are either incorrect, misleading, or unclear.