Well, then. There are any number of real insect pests whose eggs or larvae might wind up in packaged cookies, including weevils, warehouse beetles, Indianmeal moths, and biscuit beetles, to name a few. None of these look much like the flotsam poking out of the Oreo cream filling in the pictures above, however. They definitely aren't maggots (fly larvae), which are wormlike in appearance and more apt to be found feeding on decayed flesh or rotting trash.
Moreover, the contaminated filling in the side-view image looks different from what we see in the open-face view. The first contains two types of foreign objects, one white and donut-shaped, the other dark brown and irregular (see enlargement #1). In the second, blurrier image, only the white objects are visible (see enlargement #2). What could account for the inconsistency?
Further confusing the matter is the fact that the cookies pictured in the email, allegedly made in China, scarcely resemble the identical name-brand product manufactured in the United States (see comparison photos). One would would expect to see slight variations based on country of manufacture, but in this case the difference seems rather extreme.
Which brings me to this particularly odd and implausible passage in the text:
Later, at midnight my friend bring 2 biscuit along with its pack return to the 7-11 shop. But the white spots have disappear, it's been dissolved into the cream.
The white spots dissolved into the cream? How is that even possible? Insect larvae don't simply vanish without explanation.
All of which goes to say that there are good reasons to doubt the authenticity of this email. Could insect larvae infest packaged cookies under certain conditions? Yes. Does the email actually document such a case? Possibly, but given the discrepancies pointed out above, it's more likely a hoax.
Last updated: 09/29/11
