Claim: In a video shared on Facebook, some users claimed that a family of four died after consuming a brand of canned fish product identified as Anny. The video was used to warn against consuming such a brand for its perceived threat to life.
Verdict: Anny Sardine is not the cause of the death of the supposed family. The family of four died of food poisoning instead.
Full Text:
The widespread adoption of social media across the globe presents an avenue for some users to peddle fake information and distort facts, as seen in a recent claim by a certain user identified as JB Funny Comedy.
In the footage, a man, a woman and children lie in repose while people mill around them.
“Good morning my viewers all over the world. It is very very urgent. Wherever you see this particular Sardine, please do not go near it. Don’t buy it.” The man in the footage is heard saying, with an accompanying photo of the Anny Sardine fish.
According to the man, many families had died from eating the poisonous sardine fish, imploring users to spread the message to their friends. In response, many other Facebook users shared the video.
On another post, another Facebook user with the name Cruzy fresh comedy, shared the same video with a different level of detail as to what happened to the dead people. According to this user, the death of the family happened in Nnewi, Anambra State, where they had eaten Anny sardine fish. She cautioned against compromising on quality.
“Please share this video. Share it if you like your sister, your brother, mother and father. Share it so it wouldn’t look like I did not warn you,” she said at the end of the video clip.
Prime Progress launched an investigation into the widespread claims.
Verification
We took a screenshot of the video and searched it on Google Lens, but no result was found.
A verification tool on InVid used to further probe the video led instead to two news broadcasts on YouTube.
The first video is a news broadcast by TVC News in 2021, which captured the place where the family of four—a father, mother and two children—had died of alleged food poisoning in Enugu State. The family was reported to have eaten corn flour and Oha soup, a Nigerian native dish, leaving behind a 9-month-old baby who did not eat the food.
The second video Prime Progress found was an Arise News broadcast similar to the former clip, although with more details of the deceased apartment.
A further keyword search led to multiple written reports published here and here, yet no mention of Anny Sardine is made.
Conclusion
Contrary to the widespread claims made by the Facebook users, Anny Sardine was not responsible for the death of the family as shown in the viral clip.
A video circulating on Facebook claims that a family of four died after consuming a brand of canned fish product called Anny Sardine, urging people to avoid it due to perceived dangers. However, investigations reveal that the deaths were actually due to food poisoning from a different meal involving corn flour and Oha soup in Enugu State, not from Anny Sardine.
Verification efforts using tools like Google Lens and InVid led to news reports confirming the food poisoning incident but making no mention of Anny Sardine. Therefore, the claim that Anny Sardine caused the deaths is false. The attacks on the brand are based on misinformation spread across social media.
