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So, I recently saw a Youtube video (warning: potentially NSFW; contains a graphic description of gastrointestinal distress and the loss of bowel control) that reads aloud the text of an Amazon review for Haribo Sugar-Free Gummy Bears, which are known to be able to cause gastrointestinal distress according to this other question on this site.

In this review, the reviewer claims that, in April 2013, the consumption of these gummi bears on an empty stomach resulted in them experiencing gastrointestinal distress as they passed through airport security, which resulted in them being taken aside for a cavity search as a suspected drug smuggler, which in turn lead to them losing control of their bowels and expelling projectile fecal matter all over the airport security officers that were searching them; it further claims that this incident can be verified since the Toronto Star wrote a news article about the incident.

However, I've checked the Toronto Star's archive for April 2013 and I can't seem to find any such article; the closest I could find in that time period was this article about seizures of cocaine at the airport, and this article from the Toronto Sun about a plane being delayed as a result of a passenger with a knife.

As a result, I'm feeling rather dubious about the legitimacy of the original review. Is there any evidence that anyone in April 2013 had a loss of bowel control while in airport security at Toronto? Heck, is there even any evidence that anyone has ever lost control of their bowels while in airport security as a result of Haribo sugar-free gummy bears at all?

nick012000
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  • Eh, in all honesty, I don't think someone would even bother to log a case of diarrhea - there can be multiple causes and it is a pretty common thing to happen, especially when you're travelling. The review seems greatly exaggerated – Juliana Karasawa Souza Aug 04 '21 at 12:04
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    [According to reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/comments/csckwa/tomtarticle2013_man_in_toronto_airport_has_bowel/) the author admitted that it is ficticious – Juliana Karasawa Souza Aug 04 '21 at 12:35
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    @JulianaKarasawaSouza this qualifies as an answer, since you found it would you like to post it? Unfortunately Wayback Machine didn't archive the comments. – Avery Aug 04 '21 at 12:52
  • Even if this was true, what's so interesting about one person having an attack of diarrhea that may be (but is almost certainly not) linked to a specific food product that millions of people have eaten without experiencing this? – DJClayworth Apr 07 '22 at 15:11
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    "Sugar free" means artificial sweeteners. These remain in the gut, binding water and liquefying feces. I don't know about the specific case described here, but losing bowel control after taking an excess of sweeteners is absolutely plausible. I (unintentionally) verified that a long time ago with a roll of sugar-free Vivil drops consumed over a time span of about half an hour. ;-) – DevSolar Apr 08 '22 at 06:19

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Doing a little digging, we have this reddit post quoting a comment made by the author of the review that the whole thing is ficticious.

Unfortunately, the comments on reviews were lost and are no longer available for a primary source as informed by Avery in the comments

Some factors that further contribute to the fictionality of the review:

  1. During April 2013 the only day that snowed was on Saturday 20th with snow flurries, so no snow accumulation to justify his self-proclaimed scene setting

    I'll set the scene: It was late winter / early spring in Toronto and the city had just been digging itself out from a late season snow-storm.

  2. He mentions catching an red-eye flight to Amsterdam in order to give training on a software that was newly installed. This means that he would arrive in AMS on a Sunday morning. I live in the Netherlands - no training EVER happens on a Sunday.

Jan
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Juliana Karasawa Souza
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    The second point is easily explained by arriving a day early to rest before giving the actual training. – jaskij Aug 05 '21 at 12:47
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    Almost all flights from the US and Canada to Europe are red eye flights. A trainer arriving on a Sunday is far more believable than a trainer arriving on a weekday and rushing to the training location directly from the airport. – Abigail Aug 05 '21 at 23:01
  • Was the weather station at the airport or across town? Overly colorful scene-setting such as this is certainly a reason for being suspicious or suspecting exaggeration, but is not conclusive proof that the entire story is fictional. Maybe it snowed a little bit on the day or the day before, maybe it snowed a bit more at the airport than in central Toronto. – Stuart F Apr 14 '22 at 11:28