Are Pepsi and Lay’s, two of the world’s loved brands, Israeli products? No. The claim is fake.

After the beginning of Israel-Hamas war last year, social media has been trending with #Boycott Israeli products. A recent post claiming Pepsi and Lays to be Israeli products is going viral and requesting people to show their support to Palestine by boycotting them. 

In the video, a man can be seen taking Lays chips out of the packet. As soon as he put the piece of chips in his mouth, it turned into meat. After this he can be seen drinking from a can of Pepsi. The drink turned into blood. 

The user had asked people to boycott these two Israeli products. Below you can see the video. 

However, Fact Crescendo found the claim to be false. Both Pepsi and Lay’s did not originate in Israel. They are products of the USA.

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Fact Check- 

A relevant keyword search led us to the history of Pepsi published on the Britannica website. According to the information, Pepsi was first invented in 1893 as “Brad’s Drink” by Caleb Bradham, who sold the drink at his drugstore in New Bern, North Carolina. It was renamed Pepsi-Cola in 1898, ‘Pepsi’ because it was advertised to relieve dyspepsia (indigestion) and “Cola” referring to the cola flavor. Pepsi was incorporated as Pepsi-Cola in 1902 under North Carolina law. 

We also found that products like Pepsi, Lays, Mountain Dew, Quaker Oats, Mirinda, 7Up etc are PepsiCo products. 

Lays first hit the market in 1932. The founder Herman W. Lay started selling the chips in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1939, he bought a food manufacturing company and named it H.W. Lay and Company, in 1961, Lay’s merged with its competitor Frito Company and became Frito-Lay. The company produced many new products like Doritos, Funyuns, Munchos etc after it merged with the Pepsi-Cola Company in 1965. Only in the 1980s Lay’s started selling products internationally. 

There are various names for Lay’s in different countries. The product is known as Walker’s in England, Chipsy in Egypt, Tapuchips in Israel and Sabritas in Mexico. 

From the above facts it is clear that Lay’s originated in the USA and it started selling the products internationally after 1980. 

Conclusion: 

Fact Crescendo found the claim to be false. Both Pepsi and Lays had originated from the USA and not in Israel. The claim in the video is to defame the company.