Shanghai authorities assured local residents yesterday watermelons sold in the city were safe to consume, after an online post claimed that harmful food additives are injected into the fruit to make them appear more colorful and sweeter-tasting.

The microblog post by a verified user based in Beijing claimed Wednesday that some vendors inject sodium cyclamate and haematochrome into watermelons to enhance the color of the fruit and sweeten the taste, and warned people against buying the fruit, which could be identified by the light yellow parts inside. It was widely circulated by Sina Weibo users before being deleted several hours later.

Fan Hongwei, an expert from the government-backed Shanghai Melons and Fruits Association, the body that denied the claims yesterday, said that if additives were injected into the fruits, holes would be visible and such melons would go bad after a day.

Fan went on to say that the pale parts inside a watermelon are naturally occurring within melons, not caused by injections of any kind.

The microblog user who made the post apologized for spreading the rumor, for which he is being punished by authorities with a weeklong microblog ban, according to his last post yesterday.

Global Times