Page 7 - IAV Digital Magazine #567

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Fruit Roll-Ups Had To Tell TikTokers Not To Eat Plastic After A Bizarre Trend Gained Millions of Views
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB2AVbhJ2Lg
By Mara Leighton
Fruit Roll-Ups had to step in and warn TikTokers not to eat plastic liners following a viral trend.
Some users froze the candy and appeared to con- sume the prod- ucts whole, plas- tic lining included.
Fruit Roll-Ups confirmed plastic does not freeze and fans should not eat it.
After going viral on TikTok earlier this month, the company behind the beloved child- hood snack Fruit Roll-Ups was compelled to post a PSA reminding users to please not consume the plastic lining in the product.
In March, a TikTok trend emerged in which users wrapped ice cream in Fruit Roll-Ups and
froze the combi- nation to create a sandwich-style snack that has a satisfying, ASMR crunch. That trend evolved into some users s imply freezing Fruit Roll-Ups (seemingly with- out unrolling them) and eating the product whole.
But, as anyone who's eaten a Fruit Roll-Up knows, there is a thin layer of plas-
tic inside that's intended to be removed when it's unrolled. This led some users
to express con- cern that people were inadvertent- ly eating the plas- tic when it was frozen, as cre- ators could be seen biting straight into the unrolled product.
Others won- dered if they were witnessing a "Mandela effect," a phenomenon in
which a group shares false memories
(like the belief that Mr. Monopoly wore a monocle; he didn't), and the candy never included plastic liners. But some creators doubled down, either assuring their viewers that there was no plastic in their Fruit Roll- Ups or though there was plastic, that "it doesn't really matter because it's so crunchy." One video by a user who goes by @hollyberry09 insisting that her products didn't come with plastic racked up more than 5 million views.
Now, as Fruit Roll-Ups has con- firmed in a TikTok comment that plastic does not freeze, the pre- vailing conclusion is that the Great Fruit Roll-Up Mystery was sim- ply a hoax (as the creator who previ- ously told viewers the plastic "does-
n't really matter" has since stat- ed) and possibly a rage-bait for views or, more generously, some combination of an early April Fools joke and a singu- lar defective box without plastic lin- ers.
On March 21, Insider reached out to General Mills, Fruit Roll- Ups' manufactur- er, for comment. Later that day, Fruit Roll-Ups' official TikTok accout stitched @ hollyberry09's viral video insist- ing there was no visible plastic in her frozen prod- uct, adding the caption, "Legal is making me clarify that you should not attempt to eat plastic."
In the clip posted by the brand, a woman takes a Fruit Roll-Up out of a freezer, opens it, and demonstrates that there is indeed a plastic liner that cannot be bitten through.
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