In June 2026, a claim (archived) circulated online that the Norwegian men's national soccer team took 2,000 pounds of food and their own chefs to the 2026 World Cup to avoid eating American food.
One Instagram video claimed that the Norwegian team took 300 kilograms of fish, 116 kilograms of traditional Norwegian brown cheese and 6,000 oranges to be served to players by a team of three chefs at their camp in Greensboro, North Carolina.
The account wrote, "Team Norway refuses to eat American food for the World Cup."
(@checkoasis, accessed via Instagram)
Claims about the Norwegian team's bring-your-own catering also spread on Facebook (archived), Threads (archived), X (archived), Reddit (archived) and Bluesky (archived). Snopes readers contacted us about the claim.
The claim was a mixture of true, false and undetermined elements.
According to reports in Norwegian media and the country's seafood council, a government-owned marketing organization, the men's national soccer team did take a team of three chefs and some ingredients with them to their World Cup camp in North Carolina.
Aron Espelund, one of the team chefs, confirmed amounts of some ingredients to Snopes via email. His list included a total of 580 kilograms (approximately 1,280 pounds) of imported ingredients.
Espelund said the team did not take oranges from Norway to the U.S., as some claims said. We could not confirm that the team imported exactly 2,000 pounds of food, as some claims said.
We found no evidence that the team took ingredients from Norway specifically to avoid eating American food. Rather, Espelund said taking certain Norwegian ingredients ensured consistency and quality in cooking and that familiar meals could help players feel at home in a foreign place. The team did source some ingredients, like oranges for orange juice, locally in the U.S., suggesting that players and staff did not have an outright aversion to American food as some online claims suggested.
Snopes contacted the Norwegian Football Federation, which is the governing body of soccer in Norway, to ask why it took chefs and ingredients from Norway and await a reply.
Team took fish and cheese but no oranges
Online claims about the Norwegian team's imported food centered on three items: seafood, brown cheese and oranges. Espelund confirmed that the team took the following ingredients and quantities:
- 300 kilograms of Norwegian salmon and trout ("red fish")
- 100 kilograms of halibut
- 80 kilograms of brunost (Norwegian brown cheese)
- 100 kilograms of Jarlsberg cheese
The Norwegian Seafood Council said on June 19 the team took 500 kilograms (approximately 1,100 pounds) of seafood from Norway to the U.S. The council's list included salmon, trout and halibut as well as other types of fish, crabs and Norway lobster.
Espelund wrote that the team did not take oranges from Norway to the U.S. but did provide freshly squeezed orange juice to players every day pressed from locally sourced oranges.
The chef wrote that taking ingredients from Norway helped ensure consistency, which was a main aim of the catering team. Espelund wrote, "The players know what to expect from our food, and we know exactly how to prepare it to meet the team's nutritional requirements."
He added, "At the same time, food is also about comfort and routine. During a long tournament, familiar meals can help create a sense of normality and home."
Though the Norwegian team's catering situation received a lot of attention, Norway was not the only team at the World Cup that took its own chef. According to reports, both Australia's Socceroos and England's national team took chefs to the tournament.
The U.S. men's national team also took a team chef to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
When asked about the attention the team's imported ingredients had spurred, Espelund wrote:
It has been somewhat surprising, but also very positive. I think many people are curious about what happens behind the scenes at a major tournament. Nutrition and food preparation are important parts of elite sport, even if they are not always visible to the public. If the attention helps people understand the level of planning and care that goes into supporting athletes, then that's a good thing.
For further reading, Snopes has fact checked a collection of other rumors from the World Cup over the years.