The claim: Bananas in grocery stores are 'fake,' lack nutrients because they don’t produce seeds

A July 25 Facebook video (direct link, archive link) shows a series of animated bananas, scientists and men wearing sunglasses along with text that suggests something is wrong with seedless bananas in the grocery store.

“When a fruit does not contain its seeds, it no longer has its beneficial nutrients,” says the narrator, who also claims bananas are "fake," genetically modified and “created and man-made in a lab.”

It was shared more than 40,000 times in six days.

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Our rating: False

Experts say a banana's lack of seeds has no effect on its nutritional value. The absence of seeds is due to thousands of years of natural selection – not because scientists in a lab modified the fruit’s genetic code.

Seedless bananas have vitamins, fiber and potassium

Jonathan Crane, a tropical fruit crop specialist at the University of Florida, called the claims in the video “uninformed” and says bananas are good sources of several key nutrients.

The fruits contain significant amounts of vitamins A, C and B6 along with dietary fiber and 9% of the daily requirement of potassium, according to experts and the Department of Agriculture.

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