Urban legends and Netlore about food and drink: The McPus Sandwich; Kentucky Fried Rat; The Neiman Marcus Cookie Recipe; Cockroach Egg Tacos; "Secret Sauce."
Emailed article attributed to a biochemist offers medical case histories collected with the help of alleged cancer expert "Richard R. Vensal, D.D.S." purporting to prove that eating asparagus may prevent and/or cure cancer.
"Rabidly inaccurate" email flyer dating from 1995 alleging that the artificial sweetener known as aspartame or NutraSweet is the cause of virtually every malady known to humankind.
Email hoax claims an "Asian/Chinese" restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia was recently closed by authorities for offering dishes made of rats, mice, kittens and puppies.
Email flier warns that baby carrots sold in supermarkets pose a health risk because they're processed in chlorine.
Forwarded email claims potentially hazardous products made in China can be identified by examining the first three digits of the bar code on the packaging, which supposedly indicate the country of origin.
POP goes the Pillsbury Dough Boy!
This email tale claims that canola, usually touted as one of the healthiest of food oils, is actually toxic to human beings.
This week's most frequently asked question: 'Is the chicken head story true?' This week's most frequently given answer: Apparently so. Let's see what develops.
What? A woman became sick after dining on a taco or burrito infested with cockroach eggs?? Calm down, it's only an urban legend.
Forwarded messages offer scientific proof that you can cook an egg by placing it between two cell phones and placing a call.
Is KFC forbidden to use the word 'chicken' in its advertising because its products are actually made from 'genetically manipulated organisms'?
Irate consumer complains in forwarded email about finding a tiny dead frog inside a can of Kroger peas. True, with photo documentation!
Did the actor who played 'Mikey' in Life cereal commercials during the early '70s die as a result of consuming Pop Rocks and a carbonated soft drink at the same time?
Forwarded email claims a female diner contracted syphilis after eating a meal contaminated with 'three different types of semen' at the Olive Garden restaurant in West Des Moines, Iowa
"Dihydrogen monoxide [otherwise known as water] is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and kills uncounted thousands of people every year..."
Photos circulated on the Internet seem to prove that human infants are eaten in China. Are they real? (Not for the faint of heart!)
Forwarded email warns women not to drink bottled water that has been left in a car because the heat supposedly releases cancer-causing toxins which "leak" from the plastic into the water.
Email flier claims drinking cold water after a meal slows down digestion and coats the intestines with 'sludge,' leading to cancer.
Email flier purporting to originate from the North Little Rock Police Department warns parents that drug-laced candy in the form of suckers and lollipops pose a hazard to children and teenagers.
Forwarded email claims Pyrex dishes manufactured in the U.S. during the past 25 years may break or "explode" during use due to changes in its formulation.
Is a crop of fruit spreading the deadly disease necrotizing fasciitis around the world?
Prairie oysters and hair of the dog – how to "cure" that New Year's Eve hangover.
Dear Guide: My mom got suckered - she was told (and believed) that Pringles potato chips are made from McDonald's unsold fries...
An email hoax circulating since early January 2000 and claiming that bananas imported from Costa Rica carry the deadly disease known as necrotizing fasciitis continues to incite fear amongst Internet users
Dear Guide: I have heard a story doing the rounds and want to know if you think it's based on any fact at all. I must admit it does smell of 'urban legend.'
Japanese man suffers serious burns while belching blue fire in karaoke bar!
A tasty banquet of correspondence from the urban legends mailroom. Topic: food contamination. Yum!
Email flier warns fast food consumers to use only ketchup from sealed packets because a man was supposedly caught placing HIV-tainted blood in a ketchup dispenser.
At last, the
real reason it's not called "Kentucky Fried Chicken" anymore!
The straight poop on Kopi Luwak (AKA Kopi Luak), a pungent specialty coffee 'processed' through the digestive tract of a small Indonesian animal known as the palm civet.
New study finds that lemon slices/wedges served as garnishes in restaurants are often contaminated with health-threatening fecal bacteria.
False email rumor claims a woman in North Texas (or Belgium, or Botswana, etc.) caught the deadly disease leptospirosis after drinking Coke straight from an unwashed can contaminated with dried rat urine.
Emailed photos purport to show an infestation of maggots or insect eggs in the cream filling of an Oreo cookie.
This controversial site purported to sell "high quality human meat" products, but, like the similarly provocative Bonsai Kitten Website, ManBeef.com was just an elaborate prank designed to push people's emotional buttons.
Forwarded email claims that a man was caught putting HIV-positive blood into a ketchup or tomato sauce dispenser at a fast food restaurant.
This chain letter calls on American consumers to boycott McDonald's because the burger chain has allegedly begun importing "much of its beef" from South America.
Is McDonald's the world's largest purchaser of cow eyeballs, or have we been fed another fast food urban legend?
Email rumor claims two boys in Brazil died after eating Mentos and drinking Coca-Cola at the same time.
A shocking bit of misinformation has captured the hearts and minds of high school and college students of late - the notion that the popular American soft drink Mountain Dew can be used as a contraceptive.
Here is a 'true story' almost everyone has heard by now - the infamous $250 Cookie Recipe, most recently associated with the Neiman Marcus company, but previously (during the 1980s) the bane of cookie diva Mrs. Fields
A traveler is aghast when an indigent sits down next to him in an airport waiting area and (apparently) begins filching cookies from the package he has just bought.
TRUE: Sherwood Brands Pirate's Gold Milk Chocolate Coins imported from China may contain deadly melamine and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has warned the public not to eat, distribute or sell the candy.
For a Thanksgiving laugh, mom stuffs a roast turkey with a cornish game hen as a practical joke on her naive daughter.
A plausible scenario given the right circumstances, but did this incident really happen?
Forwarded email recounts an incident in which a child experienced a laryngospasm (involuntary closure of the larynx, obstructing breathing) after drinking sour spray candy directly from the container.
Authentic: Emailed pictures of square watermelons grown in special tempered glass cases by Japanese farmers.
Email rumor claims Tim Hortons Coffee contains nicotine and poses a danger to smokers or those who are allergic to nicotine.
Though it has never had a basis in fact, kids are still buying into a 60-year-old rumor that Tootsie Pop candies with a special "Indian chief" wrapper are redeemable for free products. Why?
British shoppers, apparently. A supermarket chain is considering renaming the classic dessert in hopes of improving sales.
A woman dining at a Wendy's restaurant in San Jose, California says she got the shock of her life when she realized the odd-shaped piece of meat she had just bitten into was a human finger.
Do fast food chains sometimes substitute ground worms for beef in their hamburgers to cut costs?
Is Coca-Cola an effective spermicide? Did it get its name from the fact that cocaine was one of its original ingredients? Things go better with the truth!
Who but Cecil Adams could definitively answer this perennial puzzler? See the second item on the page.
The question is, how did it make its way out of the Coke bottle and into the deep fat fryer?
Just how long
should you wait after eating a meal before you go swimming?
Nah... but hardly anyone knows exactly what the soft drink
is flavored with.
A report from the Urban Legends Reference Pages on Halloween candy tampering.
