Fact Check: Video showing pills in Luppo cakes is morphed

Recently, the Karnataka Food Safety and Quality Department issued a warning to all bakeries against using dangerous chemicals and artificial coloring agents after finding cancer-causing agents in 12 bakery cake samples. Out of 235 samples tested by the Karnataka Food Safety and Quality Department, 223 were deemed safe and 23 contained harmful substances.

Right after this news spread online, a video of a person opening a packed cake and finding two white pills in it went viral with the claim that the cake called Luppo was new in the market. These cakes contain pills that cause slow paralysis in children. The claim in Telugu goes :“LUPPO అని పిలువబడే ఒక రకమైన "కేక్" మార్కెట్లో విడుదల చేయబడింది. ఇందులో రెండు చిన్న మాత్రలు ఉంటాయి. ఇదొకరకమైన డ్రగ్.. అలవాటై,ఇది పిల్లలను నెమ్మదిగా పక్షవాతనికి గురిచేసే టాబ్లెట్ అని అంటున్నారు. దయచేసి ఈ వీడియో చూసి అర్థం చేసుకోండి. మీ స్నేహితులకు కూడా షేర్ చేయండి. అలాగే పాఠశాల ఆవరణలో మాత్రమే విక్రయిస్తున్నట్లు సమాచారం. మీ పిల్లలు ఇలాంటి సందేహాస్పద వస్తువులను కొని తినకుండా చూసుకోండి.”

When translated, it claims: “A Cake called Luppo is released in the market. The cakes have 2 pills in them. This is a kind of drug, which can slowly paralyze when kids eat them. Please watch the video and understand. Share the information with friends. These cakes are being sold on school premises only, so take note of what kids are buying”

Fact check:

This claim was viral in the years 2019, 2020 as well as 2022. The posts claimed that the manufacturing company is Chinese. The claim that the cakes shown in the video cause paralysis is FALSE.

Firstly, these cakes are not sold in India, not even online. The video shows Luppo coconut cream cake, which is manufactured by a Turkish company Solen. When observed carefully, a screengrab of the viral video shows the small circular hole on the top of the cake, raising a concern that it might have been tampered.

On the About page of Solen, we can see that the Luppo bars are not sold in India. The About Us page states that Şölen exports over 200 product types to over 120 countries including the USA, Belgium, Japan and Maldives. Şölen also has regional offices in Dubai, Algeria, Azerbaijan, the USA, Saudi Arabia, Germany and England as well as regional directorates in the Levant Region, Canada, China, and Latin America.

The quality and food safety policy of the manufacturer, Solen states that its manufacturing process has passed the audit processes like Sedex, BSCI, ISO 9001, etc.

When we searched the keyframes from the video and searched them using Google reverse image search, we found that the claim was debunked in the year 2020 by several fact-check organizations like Snopes, and Boomlive. Turkish Fact-checking website 'Teyit' also debunked the claim. Teyit accessed the laboratory reports which clearly showed that the cake bars have cleared the tests.

Teyit also elaborated on the manufacturing procedure, which is automated. Any pills or other ingredients added during manufacturing will be melted and mixed during the baking process, concluding that the pills might have been added after the manufacture of the product.

Snopes reported that, based on the information provided by Şölen, the system of filters used in the production of these cakes block any particle larger than 700 microns (0.7 millimeters). It is therefore quite unlikely that the tablets were placed into a cake before it was packaged. Sölen provided multiple documents showing the safety certifications of the plants where its products, including the Luppo coconut cream bar, are manufactured to Snopes. Those inspections were conducted by the Swiss company SGS.

Telugupost also debunked this claim in the year 2022. Hence, the claim that the Luppo cakes that are new in the market, have pills in them which have a paralyzing effect on children is FALSE.