No, WHO did not advise public to stop eating bakery items!
As the COVID-19 sweeps through every part of the world, there are numerous claims about ‘so-called’ remedies, cures and treatments for the virus. Fact Crescendo has debunked several such false claims in the past few weeks. We debunk yet another such claim spreading rapidly on social media. A post with an image of bakery items […]
As the COVID-19 sweeps through every part of the world, there are numerous claims about ‘so-called’ remedies, cures and treatments for the virus. Fact Crescendo has debunked several such false claims in the past few weeks. We debunk yet another such claim spreading rapidly on social media.
A post with an image of bakery items and WHO’s logo has started circulating widely on social media platforms and messaging platforms in Sri Lanka with the following caption: “Stop eating bakery items. It is strictly advised to not to eat bakery items as it is not washable and can get infected to the virus easily”. The post gives an impression that WHO has advised against the consumption of bakery products.
Below is a screengrab of such a claim posted by a Facebook user named Omesh Cecil
This image was shared by number of other individual users, Facebook pages and group as below.
Twitter was abuzz with the same message.
Fact Check
First we checked with the World Health Organization (WHO) – Sri Lanka social media channels and found that they carried a post about the spreading false news about consumption of bakery items.
The Facebook post said “WHO has not advised against eating bakery items” and to visit WHO Sri Lanka website for credible information regarding COVID19
WHO Sri Lanka verified twitter account also published a tweet clarifying WHO has not advised against eating bakery items.
For further clarification, we contacted WHO via email and they confirmed that such a notice had not been made from WHO Sri Lanka or any WHO office around the world.
For further investigations, we did a simple “Google Reverse Image” search and found that the image of the viral post had been taken from a news article published as “Coronavirus: how bakers are dealing with the pandemic” published in bakeryinfo.co.uk website.
The article did not say anything about avoiding bakery products either. Article states that bakers across the UK are taking steps to reduce the risk of coronavirus to staff and customers through a series of practical measures.
We did a “Google news” search to check whether any main stream media had published a reported an advisory against the use of bakery product related to COVID19 and were not able to find any reports from international or local media sources requesting public to refrain from using bakery products due to COVID19 concerns.
However, we noticed a number of reports on how bakeries around the world had adopted novel methodologies in serving their customers amidst the pandemic.
Furthermore, we checked the FDA’s website and found their advisory related to COVID19. We noticed the following reply on their FAQ section while replying to common concern these days on the risk of transmission of COVID19 via food packaging.
“Currently there is no evidence of food or food packaging being associated with transmission of COVID-19. It may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads. CDC notes that in general, because of poor survivability of these coronaviruses on surfaces, there is likely very low risk of spread from food products or packaging that are shipped over a period of days or weeks at ambient, refrigerated, or frozen temperatures. It is more likely that a person will be exposed by person-to-person transmission involving close contact with someone who is ill or shedding the virus.”
Conclusion:
From our investigation, it is clear that WHO has NOT issued any warning against the consumption of bakery items related to the ongoing COVID-19 virus. Hence the claim made in the name of WHO: “STOP Eating Bakery Items - It is strictly advised not to eat bakery items as it is not washable and can get infected to the virus easily” is totally false and baseless.
Title:No, WHO did not advise people to stop eating bakery items!
Fact Check By: Sathyajith SubasingheResult: False
