Nine Facebook (FB) posts falsely claimed that 20 people got food poisoning due to counterfeit Ajinomoto umami seasoning. It showed photos from an unrelated incident in Olongapo City, Zambales.
The circulating posts misused photos posted on FB by the Olongapo City Information Center on Aug. 6 about a food poisoning incident involving visiting Sangguniang Kabataan and local government officials of San Carlos City, Pangasinan. The officials were attending a seminar in the Central Luzon province.
One of the false posts, dated Aug. 27, carried this claim in the Bisaya language:
“20-KA TAWO NAHOSPITAL TUNGOD SA FAKE AJINOMOTO! | Mukabat na ngadto sa 20 ka indibidwal ang gidala sa balay tambalanan human kini sila naglisod og ginhawa ug sigeg sakit ang tiyan.”
(20 PEOPLE WERE HOSPITALIZED BECAUSE OF FAKE AJINOMOTO! | As many as 20 individuals were brought to the hospital after experiencing difficulties in breathing and continuous stomach pains.)
The original photos show multiple patients lying down and others being given intravenous dextrose.
“[T]he claim is not true, and this is fake news. I can confirm that those images were captured from the Olongapo City Information Center,” Jhuls Nazareno Resuello, city information officer and secretary to the mayor of San Carlos City, Pangasinan, told VERA Files Fact Check in a Sept. 4 phone call.
Note: Click the original photos to view their source.
Ajinomoto Philippines Corporation also said in a statement on FB on Aug. 29 that their products were not connected to the food poisoning incident, based on an investigation.
Resuello said the food poisoning may have been partly caused by the ice served at the venue, because the bacteria found on the stool samples of those who got sick matched the bacterial samples from the ice.
Additionally, some of the erroneous posts carried links supposedly showing tips to differentiate real and fake Ajinomoto, as well as an interview with the victims. Instead, these links redirect to e-commerce affiliate sites that sell products.
“Those links may be as harmless as those that redirect to Lazada, pero (but) some of them… makukuha ang [iyong] IP address at personal information (might get your IP address and personal information,” Resuello warned.
The nine erroneous FB posts, which garnered a total of over 2,432 reactions, 257 comments, and 9,045 shares, appeared a few weeks after the Zambales incident.
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(Editor's Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)