‚How do I identify an injected watermelon? Learn how dangerous it is to eat the injected fruit.‘
“The summer season is here and with it, the watermelon season is here. Considered the healthiest fruit of the summer, watermelon contains 92% water and 6% sugar. Eating watermelon in summer is considered beneficial as it is high in fibre. But do you know that this season there are also many watermelons on the market that are injected to look red and beautiful? It is not easy for ordinary people to recognise injected watermelon. The watermelon is usually injected with a dye to make it look exceptionally red and juicy. Sometimes oxytocin is injected to make it grow faster. These chemically injected fruits can be very harmful to your health.”
How to identify an injected watermelon?
- Check the white powder. You often see white and yellow powder on the top of the watermelon.
- Is the watermelon too red? Injected watermelons often look too red.
- Look for holes or cracks. There is often a small hole in the watermelon during injection.
How do you inspect a watermelon?
The best way to prevent injected watermelons is to identify the signs indicated above. Apart from this, one way is to leave the watermelon for at least 2-3 days after purchasing it from the market. Watermelons do not spoil for several weeks, so there is no harm in leaving them for 2-4 days. In these 2-4 days, if you see any foam or water coming out of the surface of the watermelon, then it means that it is chemically injected.”
Malik, Vani. “Hoe Identificeer Ik Een Geïnjecteerde Watermeloen? Leer Hoe Gevaarlijk Het Is Om Zo’n Geïnjecteerd Fruit Te Eten.” Befitglitz.com, 22 Apr. 2020, https://befitglitz.com/dutch/hoe-identificeer-ik-een-geinjecteerde-watermeloen-leer-hoe-gevaarlijk-het-is-om-zon-geinjecteerd-fruit-te-eten/.
ANALYSIS:
Another newspaper did the fact-check and made it clear that watermelons foam because of rotting, not chemical injections [1]. A watermelon already has a good shape and colour by itself. With an injection, you absolutely do not get a nicer colour distribution in the fruit and adjusting the shape is not easy either, as the skin is very hard. Growers do use other ways to get the best possible melons, these days they are grown upright, for example, to get a rounder shape without pressure spots. And as with other fruits, pesticides are used. So it is always advisable to wash your fruit. The article is a blatant lie to generate clicks to the website and generate advertisement clicks, rather than having any intention to actually inform the reader. As most news sources no longer get their main income from selling physical newspapers, or other types of one-on-one sales, advertisements have become more important than ever, especially for online types of media. The price of an online advertisement is usually measured in CPM (cost per thousand impressions), which means the price of an ad depends on the amount of clicks the website, where the ad is being shown, receives. A lot of websites take advantage of this advertising way by creating articles solely for the purpose of generating clicks rather than actually creating useful or even truthful content.
[1] „CHECK – Ja, watermeloenen kunnen schuimen, maar dat komt niet door een chemische injectie“, vrt.be, 10 September 2020, https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2022/09/08/check-schuimende-watermeloenen/.
ABOUT THE SOURCE:
The source seems to be very much into clickbait articles rather than actual news. The website is full of targeted and clickbait advertisements. This “news” site is not seen as a widely known Belgian site and upon further investigation, we can see many doubtful articles. Some claim to fix anyone’s mental health with a few simple tips and some sell products in the middle of the article which makes their motives for writing the article much clearer. It also features articles in several languages, which does not exactly look professional, as this would be an indication that there is no redactorial line for this site. Anyone from any country can write an article without one editor in chief that does quality control. They seem to want to reach people, who are easily influenced by scare tactics and make their purchases online, or via teleshopping, as this is most profitable for these kinds of sites.
