300,000 pounds of rat meat disguised as chicken wings were sold in the U.S.
300,000 pounds of rat meat disguised as chicken wings were sold in the U.S.
On 15Â February 2016, the web siteÂ Urban Image Magazine published an article claiming that 300,000 poundsÂ of counterfeit chicken wings sold prior to that yearâ€™s Super Bowl wereÂ actually rat meat. However, the source cited by the web site wasÂ World News Daily Report, a well-known peddler of fabricatedÂ news.Â On 6 February 2016, that web site& had published the claim just ahead of the 7 February 2016 football championship event: < San Francisco, CA | The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is concerned about an estimated 300,000 pounds of counterfeit rat meat that has been sold as chicken wings in restaurants and grocery stores across America. FDA inspectors raised concerns when several illegal containers originating from China were seized by customs at the Port of San Francisco and were found to contain rat meat that was meant to be shipped to different meat processing plants across America and resold as chickenÂ â€¦Â the FDA warns an estimated 300,000 pounds of the counterfeit rat meat might still be in circulation and could finish in American plates during the Super Bowl this Sunday. â€œThe Super Bowl is a period where chicken wings are in high demand and where restaurants and grocery stores often face a penuryâ€ explains FDA inspector, Ronald Jones. â€œThis is where the illegal market comes in. Although there is nothing dangerous about consuming rat meat if it is properly cooked, United States laws prohibit the import and sales of rat meat as a comestible item,â€ he adds. > As with all of World News Daily Reportâ€˜s articles,Â the claim had no basis in truth. The articleÂ used an unrelated image published to the internet in 2014, itself unrelated to chicken wings or the 2016 Super Bowl. The â€œchicken wings are rat meatâ€ claim was swiped in 2017 by the fake news site Now44News. In March 2017, the Food and Drug Administration addressed and debunked the story: < U.S. officials didnâ€™t seize thousands of pounds of imported rat meat prior to the Super Bowl and they never issued a warning saying restaurants and food stores could be selling it as chicken wings, despite reports shared widely on multiple websites. The stories claim federal customs officials at the Port of San Francisco seized several thousands of pounds of rat meat imported from China. They also mention an FDA warning that some 300,000 pounds of rat meat could still be in circulation as Super Bowl parties approached. FDA spokesman Peter Cassell told The Associated Press that the agency â€œis not aware of the seizure of rat meat referencedâ€ and the FDA never issued such a warning. The stories quote two agency officials, but the FDA has no record of any current or past employees with those names, Cassell said. >
"rat" AND "meat" AND "chicken" AND "wings"