Is a video of fresh produce being artificially painted in China real? No, that's not true: The clip originated from an account that labels its content as AI-generated. The video contained multiple inconsistencies strongly pointing to AI.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Instagram, where it was published on December 2, 2025. The caption read:
chemical.
This is what the attached video looked like on Instagram at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post by "skkadit2023" at instagram.com)
The clip with Chinese words at the bottom implied that it was real footage documenting the process of artificial food color application in China.
A reverse image search, however, showed that the earliest version of the video (archived here) was published on November 26, 2025, by an account with a label warning that it posts AI-generated content:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post at tiktok.com/@huqiuju)
The text at the bottom of the screen read in Chinese:
视频画面由技术合成,非真实存在
As translated by Google Translate, it means:
The video footage is digitally composited and does not exist in reality.
Other online tools produced similar translations.
Here is DeepL:
The video footage is a technical composite and does not represent actual events.
And here is Yandex Translate:
The video screen is synthesized by technology and does not exist in reality.
Had the video been real, the spray paint applied in this fashion would have colored not only fruits and vegetables, but also the surfaces surrounding them. However, we don't see that:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post at tiktok.com/@huqiuju)
In another frame, the color of the purported artificial paint pool (green) doesn't match the result (a red apple). Furthermore, the supposed technician somehow manages not to have their hands colored despite not using protective gloves:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post at tiktok.com/@huqiuju)
Later, apples somehow do not get cracked after a human walks on them, defying the force of gravity:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post at tiktok.com/@huqiuju)
Finally, we see that some of the berries change color on their own -- even before a technician sprays that area:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post at tiktok.com/@huqiuju)
