“Asparagus pee with strawberry smell”
Authority admits: Four-year-old “study” is an April Fool’s joke
April 17, 2024, 7:59 p.m
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In 2020, the Federal Center for Nutrition published a report about an alleged asparagus study. Reputable media are getting into the topic. Now the authority admits that the story is an April Fool’s joke.
For more than four years, a false report about an alleged study on a connection between eating asparagus and strawberries has been on the homepage of the Federal Center for Nutrition (BzfE). On April 1, 2020 there was a message with the heading “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.
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 dpa’s advice editorial team also referred to them in a report in 2022.
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”). The fictitious study was about a test subject who was able to neutralize the strong smell of urine after eating asparagus by eating strawberries.
The BzfE is part of the Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food (BLE) and aims to inform and advise consumers in Germany about healthy diets, food safety and sustainable consumption.