Patti LaBelle Sweet Potato Pie Kills Hundreds-Fiction!

Patti LaBelle Sweet Potato Pie Kills Hundreds-Fiction!

Summary of eRumor:
Hundreds of people died after eating Patti LaBelle brand “Patti’s Sweet Potato Pie.”
The Truth:
A fake news website is behind the false report that hundreds died after eating Patti Labelle brand sweet potato pie.
The fake news website Report Quickly published a story on November 14, 2015, that said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had found that Patti Labelle pie that was tainted with “tetrodotoxin,” a venomous substance found in puff fish:

According to the CDC, the pies were produced in the same factory that thousands of puffer fish are devenomized and prepared. The CDC and FDA are currently running an investigation on the factory to find out how the pies were tainted. In the meantime, the company has issued a recall on the pies and Walmart will be accepting returns.

Within days, the fake report of Patti’s Sweet Potato Pie poising hundreds of people had been shared nearly 200,000 times on social media sites. Taken out of context, many people were tricked into believing that report was true, but it’s not.
The disclaimer that appears at the bottom of Report Quickly stories states that it publishes a “combination of real shocking news and satire news.” This story falls into the ladder category.
The first giveaway that the Patti LaBelle story is a hoax is that the FDA is responsible for food safety and product recalls — not the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as the fake news story reported.