Man Puts HIV-Tainted Blood in Ketchup Dispenser

Hoax email advises fast-food consumers not to use ketchup unless it comes in sealed packets because a man was supposedly caught placing HIV-tainted blood in a restaurant ketchup dispenser

Description: Email hoax
Circulating since: Oct. 2004
Status: False
Analysis: See below

Email example contributed by Alvin S., 6 October 2004:

Comments: It's probably no coincidence that this 2004 email hoax surfaced just before Halloween -- a holiday we have come to associate, rightly or wrongly, with food tampering.

Nor is it a coincidence that the incident described above allegedly happened at a fast food restaurant. Urban legendry is rife with such tales, which testify to our conflicted feelings about fast food and giant corporate restaurant chains in general.

The charge that someone has knowingly contaminated a ketchup dispenser with HIV also smacks of existing legends about miscreants attempting to spread the AIDS virus on purpose -- stories which, though for the most part false, bespeak our collective fear of this deadly, worldwide epidemic.

It should come as no surprise, then, that a search for recent news items confirming that someone was caught in the act of adulterating condiments with HIV-positive blood produced zero results. With its uncorroborated claims, shameless fearmongering, and motifs lifted from existing folklore, this warning has all the earmarks of a hoax.

Besides which, scientists say AIDS is not a food-borne disease.

Think about it. If such a thing had really happened and truly posed a threat to public health, would you have learned about it first in an anonymous, forwarded email?

Updates:

HIV Ketchup Email a Hoax, Officials Say
Times Record (Ft. Smith, Arkansas), 27 April 2007

HIV Blood in Ketchup Report False, Says Alabama AG
Decatur Daily News, 1 January 2006

Sources and further reading:

Fact Sheet: HIV and Its Transmission
Centers for Disease Control fact sheet

Frequently Repeated Rumors About HIV Transmission
Centers for Disease Control FAQ

Last updated: 03/20/06

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