Fact check: Gregg Wallace post was edited to be about controversial farm product

A screenshot from the television presenter’s social media account appears to have been manipulated to reference feed additive misinformation.

Tuesday 03 December 2024 17:31 GMT

The claim about a bovine feed additive showed a fake screenshot of a post from @Gregg_Health, an account used to promote Gregg Wallace’s weight loss business (Anna Gowthorpe/PA) (PA Archive)

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A post on X, formerly Twitter, claims television host Gregg Wallace wrote his own post on the social media platform warning of “disturbing reports” of a substance called Bovaer being used by dairy companies in the UK.

Evaluation

Concerns regarding Bovaer and conspiracy theories over its alleged links to Bill Gates have become widespread over the past week, but it appears that the post attributed to Wallace has been faked.

The facts

The apparent screenshot is of a post attributed to @Gregg_Health, an account used to promote Wallace’s weight loss business and separate from his personal account. This image also contains the watermark of a TikTok account which has also shared the alleged post by Wallace. Both of these were uploaded on December 3.

An earlier version of this image, however, appears to have been posted by a different X account on December 2. It is also clearer than the later versions, which suggests it may be the original. It should also be noted that the post misspells “additive” as “addictive” when referring to Bovaer.

There is no post from the @Gregg_Health account matching the one in the screenshot, nor any other posts on the subject. Although such a post could have since been deleted, the video thumbnail accompanying the alleged post is identical to one featured on a post from May 14. The video featured Wallace addressing the camera, in front of a bookshelf and a tartan window blind, giving advice about dieting. The text around it, including the date, has likely been edited to create the fake image.

Bovaer, the subject of the alleged post, came to prominence when dairy co-operative and Lurpak owner Arla Foods announced a trial use of the product across a number of its farms. This was made public on November 26, weeks after the supposed post on X.

Bovaer is a feed additive designed to be used by dairy farmers in feeding cattle to reduce the methane emissions produced by the animals, by suppressing certain digestive enzymes. This news faced a significant backlash and calls for boycotts, with fears over the effect of the additive on human health.

Arla reiterated the product’s safety in a statement that aimed to repudiate “a significant amount of misinformation”, noting that Bovaer has been approved for use in 68 countries. This regulatory approval was also highlighted by the NFU.

As in the alleged post by Wallace, some comments online have referenced a link between Bovaer and the billionaire Bill Gates. Although the manufacturer, DSM Nutritional Products, was “honoured” to be mentioned in a book written by Mr Gates, he is more directly linked to a rival product called Rumin8 which was invested in by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a project co-founded by the billionaire.