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In April 2022, a viral rumor was shared on Facebook that claimed McDonald's ice cream contains xylitol, a sugar alcohol that is toxic and even deadly to dogs. However, while it's true that xylitol is dangerous to dogs, it's false to claim that it's included in McDonald's ice cream. At the time that we filed this report, one viral post had already been shared more than 1,000 times: It read as follows: Another instance of McDonald's ice cream being linked to xylitol, also known as birch or wood sugar, appeared as this colorful screenshot in many posts: It read as follows: Just so everyone knows. McDonalds ice cream has xylitol sugar in it. Don't feed any of their ice cream to your pets. Xylitol sugar is toxic to dogs and will kill them in a hour Please... We contacted McDonald's and shared the social media rumor about the company's ice cream, xylitol, and dogs. By email, McDonald's USA confirmed that their ice cream does not contain xylitol. Further, the company's website doesn't show xylitol as an ingredient in any of McDonald's desserts. The Facebook posts that made the claim also provided no evidence or sources to substantiate the false rumor. Separate from the false McDonald's rumor, we have reported in the past that it's true that xylitol is a sugar alcohol that is dangerous for dogs. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) published that it is a serious concern if a dog ingests any product that contains xylitol: In sum, we rated the claim that McDonald's ice cream contains xylitol as False. The sugar alcohol truly is harmful to dogs, but the company's U.S. headquarters confirmed that it's not included in its desserts.
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