A restaurant in Sichuan is under investigation by authorities on suspicion of violating anti-food waste laws, related to challenging customers to eat as much as possible.
A restaurant in Yibin city is offering a free meal and other rewards to diners who can eat 108 chaoshou, a type of wonton dipped in a spicy and sour Sichuan sauce, Chinese media reported this week.
To attract attention, the restaurant advertised a "Big Belly King Challenge" on social media. However, officials in Yibin city investigated whether the restaurant violated food waste laws.
Eating contests are relatively common in the West, but they can be a sensitive issue in China, where famines in the 1950s and 1960s killed around 45 million people. Several restaurants have been investigated for hosting large eating challenges.
Spicy wontons, a specialty of Sichuan province, China. Photo: Redhousespice
Chinese President Xi Jinping once described food waste as "shocking and distressing." In March, he asserted that agricultural supply chains are like the foundation of national security.
China enacted a law against food waste in 2021, after authorities harshly criticized bloggers who live-streamed excessive eating to attract viewers. Many blogger accounts were subsequently banned on social media.
According to the law, restaurant owners can be fined 10,000 yuan ($1,400) if their establishments "entice or mislead customers into over-ordering, causing waste." Broadcasters and television stations, as well as those who release online video and audio, face fines up to 10 times that amount if found to be involved in "producing, publishing, or promoting programs or messages about excessive eating."
According to local market regulators, the restaurant in Yibin "showed excessive eating habits and encouraged customers to order excessive amounts of food."
However, some Chinese social media users argue that the authorities have overreacted.
"Is this considered wasteful? Why not let people compete to see who can eat the most? Does the food that isn't consumed there actually reach the poor?", one person wrote on Weibo.
Another person suggested that market regulators should focus on food safety, such as the scandal involving contaminated infant formula, illegally recycled cooking oil contaminated with food waste, or even wastewater.
Huyen Le (According to CNN )
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