Fact Check: Video showing rats crawling on kachoris served by street food vendor is AI generated
Street food culture has been thriving in India since ancient times. Street food displays the intermingling of various;
Dal Kachori stall
Street food culture has been thriving in India since ancient times. Street food displays the intermingling of various cultures from different parts of the country. Street food in North India has more gravy and has food items like chole puri, chaat, etc, while in South India, options like idli, dosa, etc. are available. In West India, spicy food like vada pav, pav bhaji, etc. are seen while in east, sweet and savouries like Jhal muri, churmuri, etc are the favourite of people and are sold as street food. We also see tea stalls where tea, coffee are sold along with all-time favourtie cookies, samosa and kachoris from all over the country. Street food lures people since it is easily available and affordable but these foods can pose health risks due to potential contamination from bacteria, virus, etc. The street food sold on the footpaths can be polluted due to dust, flies and other animals.
In a video relating to street food, a rat is seen running around on a pot full of Kachoris and it is going viral on social media with satirical captions, implying that Indian street food is very unhealthy and needs to be avoided.
Here is the archive link of the claim.
Fact Check:
The claim is False. There are no rats in the original video, the rats have been added digitally to the original video.
When we extracted keyframes from the viral video and searched using Google reverse image search, we found original videos of the street food vendor preparing the kachori, but there is no rat seen in these videos. Here is a YouTube short published in October 2024 with the title ‘Kachori ya Golgappa’.
An Instagram user shared the same video with the caption Dal Kachori on September 20, 2024.
Another YouTube user shared the same video reel with the caption ‘7 baap wala kachori seller in Firozabad’. This video was shared inn October 2023. We did not find any rat on these original videos.
When we searched further using the keywords ‘7 baap wala kachori’, we found several more videos of the same street vendor being recorded for his tasty food. In this video, he can be seen explaining that every person has 7 father figures in their life and who they are.
Another YouTube channel named ‘Wonder with hassan’ also shared a video about this street vendor in Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh.
Upon further search, we found that the video showing rat crawling on the food has been added using AI technology. An Instagram user named AI wala foodie has posted the viral video on March 20, 2025 with the caption ‘Tag Kachori Lovers, Video generated by AI’. The video has been deleted on the Instagram page, so we are adding the screenshot of the post.
We could also see several other videos showing similar rats and other animals crawling on the food sold by the street food vendors. All the videos published have been tagged stating that the videos are AI generated. When we checked the bio of this user, we could see the disclaimer that ‘All videos are generated by AI’.
Here is the screenshot of the bio and another video generated and published by the Instagram user.
The video was also debunked and shared by d-intent data on their X profile.
Hence, the viral video of a street food vendor selling kachoris while rats are seen crawling on the food is an AI generated video. In the original video, no rat can be seen. The claim is False.