Have you ever been a victim of snackfishing?

We all know what catfishing means, the act of being deceived online by someone pretending to be someone else. However, in recent months, the internet has introduced a new phenomenon: snackfishing. This trend began in November 2023, when a young Australian convinced thousands of British people (an Instagram post reached 113 million views) of the existence of Transparent Heinz Ketchup. Snackfishing continues to gain traction on major social media platforms. Using a filter to modify his accent, hair gel, and an empty sauce bottle, a creator named Benji showcased the first “Transparent Ketchup,” prompting hundreds of British consumers to contact Heinz to ask where they could find the mythical condiment. Since then, Benji’s creations have not stopped. His latest videos show him picking up delicacies from UK supermarket shelves, such as chocolate-covered Pringles with a MilkyBar flavor, lemon and raspberry Nutella, pistachio Kinder Bueno, and chocolate mayonnaise. Whether these foods are tasty or not, we cannot say. What is certain is that they continue to intrigue internet users, with the TikTok page UK Snack Attack amassing over 150,000 followers and more than 9 million likes. 

In an interview with Wired, Benji (who did not wish to share his last name) revealed that it all started in 2019 when he and his friends imported uniquely flavored drinks to review. When the lockdown began, the creator explained, he had to find an alternative way to discover new flavors: by inventing them. With the help of Photoshop and a printer, he could create any snack his imagination could conjure—including pickle-flavored Haribo candies. After being contacted by several companies asking him to stop using their names improperly (as they were bombarded with emails and phone calls from curious consumers), Benji had to start clarifying in his posts that the featured foods were not real.

While his account continues to attract followers with a taste for the unusual, the snackfishing phenomenon raises an important question about the future of the internet and the truthfulness of the content we consume online. With the advancement of tools like Photoshop and AI, it has become nearly impossible to distinguish a real image from a fake one—or an authentic snack from a fabricated one. To reassure their users, some social media platforms have implemented new verification tools: X (formerly Twitter) uses Community Notes to let users debunk false information, while Instagram automatically labels certain content as “AI-generated”. However, there is a significant difference between the deep fake phenomenon—which poses risks to celebrities' mental health and threatens international politics—and Benji’s humorous snackfishing. It would indeed be hard to believe a bottle of blue ketchup declaring the start of World War III.