NYT's fact-check of RFK Jr.'s claims about popular breakfast cereal stuns social media

The New York Times offered a baffling fact-check of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s claim that a popular breakfast cereal in the United States contains several artificial ingredients.

The former Democratic-turned-Independent presidential candidate endorsed President-elect Donald Trump after suspending his 2024 campaign in August. On Thursday, Trump announced he had nominated Kennedy to head the Department of Health and Human Services in his incoming administration.

"Mr. Kennedy has singled out Froot Loops as an example of a product with too many artificial ingredients, questioning why the Canadian version has fewer than the U.S. version," the Times' report read. "But he was wrong. The ingredient list is roughly the same, although Canada's has natural colorings made from blueberries and carrots while the U.S. product contains red dye 40, yellow 5 and blue 1 as well as Butylated hydroxytoluene, or BHT, a lab-made chemical that is used 'for freshness,' according to the ingredient label."

The strange fact-check, which seemed to prove rather than disprove Kennedy's point about artificial ingredients being included in the U.S. version of the cereal, drew critics to mock the paper.

He added in mockery, "'As you see, the ingredient list is just completely identical, except the US product contains formaldehyde, cyanide, and nearly undetectable levels of saxitoxin.'"

However, The New York Times issued a correction to the story. 

"Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article incorrectly described Mr. Kennedy's recent comments on Froot Loops. He was comparing the total number of ingredients in the U.S. and Canadian versions of the cereal, not the number of artificial ingredients," the correction read. 

Fox News' Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.