Fact Check: Video of plastic waste granulation passed off as fake wheat manufacturing

Hyderabad: Social media users are sharing a video of granulation in a local small-scale factory. Users claim that it shows the production of fake wheat in the market.

The caption to the post reads: “We can't say whether this is right or wrong...! But this video is viral on social media. Fake wheat has also started being made, look at the market with open eyes, what is left now to make fake wheat.”

Similar posts can be seen here, here, here and here.

Nowadays, there is nothing you cannot replicate. From branded clothing and accessories to food products, everything has a copy. We come across a number of videos that show the manufacturing of fake dairy production, fake vegetables, plastic rice, meat being injected with chemicals, and whatnot.

One such video has gone viral on social media. In the video, one can see a small factory with a lot of spoiled plastic and polythene. The plastic was then put into machines, which chopped it into small pieces. Later, these were made into long fibers and then a machine converts these fibers into a substance that looks like wheat.

Earlier, we found a video about alleged fake eggs. It proved to be fake.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found the claim to be false.

On closely analyzing the viral videos, we found that the same watermark was applied to both videos. The watermark reads 'Smartest Workers', which indicates that both videos originated from the same source. Moving forward, we performed a keyword search, taking the watermark as a cue, and found the same video uploaded on a YouTube channel 'Smartest Workers' titled 'Plastic's new purpose: Unveiling the Recycling Journey' dated 24th September 2023. We also found that both are small clippings from the YouTube video.

On the YouTube channel, you can see multiple such videos showing small factory manufacturing of various products.

Moreover, we performed a keyword search on YouTube to find out how plastic is recycled and converted into granules. Through our search, we found a video uploaded on a YouTube channel ‘Manufacturing Skill’ which shows the same process as in the viral video.

Hence, it is evident that the viral video does not show fake wheat production but the recycling and granulation of plastic waste.