Coca-Cola and worms. What's the connection?
Fake news multimodal essay by Kasaralyn Richard
Introduction
In the early 2000s, there was a food myth that circulated around the Internet. The strange and unusual misinformation was that Coca-Cola soda could be used to coerce worms out of raw pork meat. Videos on YouTube and Tik-Tok have both perpetuate this myth. The videos depict people pouring Coca-Cola on raw meat, then waiting a few minutes. After a few minutes, there appear to be small worms coming out of the pork meat. The exact origin of this story is not clear. It is clear this was well circulated around the Internet. That is why I believe the origin is so elusive. I was unable to pinpoint the source or exact time of when the story started to go around. It is not hard to see that this story is untrue, but it does play on people’s fear of food safety.
Research results
To understand the myth, we must first look at its roots in society or on an individual level. The origin came from a mixture of religious background and industrial background. The religious background comes from Jewish or Muslim beliefs. They believe pigs are dirty or unclean. The industrial background is from a long since abandoned practice of feeding pigs’ other animals raw meat. This practice was abandoned because the workers would give the pigs meat that sometimes were infected with parasites called trichinellosis. So, if we follow the timeline of this issue, you can see that it is not hard to become weary of this practice. First, an animal that was infected with trichinellosis is slaughtered and given to the pigs as feed. The pigs would then be slaughtered and brought to the butcher shop. A shopper would then buy it and bring it home for dinner. Let us say that the customer does not thoroughly cook the meat and serves it. Most likely, at that point, the family becomes infected with the parasite.
According to the CDC website, infections from this worm are sporadic these days. Of course, it does happen but in much smaller numbers. Trichinellosis within a few days of infection begins with gastrointestinal problems such as vomiting or diarrhea. After a few weeks, the symptoms become flu-like and include muscle pain. It is rare for the disease to cause death. Some individuals could be asymptomatic and never know they were infected with this worm. The severity of illness is also related to how much of the worms were ingested. If it were a small amount, it would most likely be less severe. If a large amount were consumed, the infection would be more severe due to the more significant numbers of the parasite.
Conclusion
As with any misinformation it spreads like wildfire, few people use critical thinking or research what is being said. They just pass it along as fact. As you can see, this misinformation plays on people’s fears of food safety and ignorance of the meat industry. What practices are used or what has been outdated and abandoned for safer practices. It is critical people start researching what they share on the Internet, especially when the information causes fear or hesitance.
Sources
“CDC — Trichinellosis.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 29 Sept. 2020, www.cdc.gov/parasites/trichinellosis/index.html.
Mikkelson, David. “FACT CHECK: Does Coca-Cola Coax Worms Out of Pork?” Snopes.com, 14 Nov. 2017, www.snopes.com/fact-check/coke-adds-life/.
