Nutrition
Authorities clear up asparagus April Fool’s joke after four years
Strawberries and asparagus are often bought together. photo
© Roland Weihrauch/dpa
Sometimes it takes longer. The Federal Center for Nutrition has now brought out a process from 2020 and provided information: What strawberries plus asparagus cannot do.
For more than four years, a false report about an alleged study on a connection between asparagus and strawberry consumption has been on the homepage of the Federal Center for… Nutrition (BzfE). On April 1, 2020, the message was published with the headline “Asparagus pee with strawberry smell”, the content of which was “fictitious”, an “April Fool’s joke”, according to a message sent by the BzfE, more than four years later.
A day earlier, on Tuesday, a note (“April, April!”) was placed in the header image of the message that is still available on the BZfE’s website, a BzfE representative said when asked. In addition, a corresponding note was placed above the otherwise unchanged text, he explained.
Some media outlets picked up on the supposed study results based on the original report that was online up to that point. Among others, the advice editorial team of the German Press Agency also referred to them in a report in 2022. The BzfE is part of the Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food (BLE) and has the goal of informing consumers in Germany about healthy diets, food safety and to inform and advise them about sustainable consumption.
It was only last weekend that the decision was made to identify the joke study as such, said the BzfE representative. There were mainly positive reactions to the press release (“Asparagus pee WITHOUT strawberry smell”).