A restaurant in Sichuan is being investigated by authorities for allegedly violating anti-food waste laws, involving challenging customers to eat more.
A restaurant in Yibin city is offering diners a free meal and other rewards if they can eat 108 chaoshou, a type of wonton dipped in a spicy and sour sauce typical of Sichuan, Chinese media reported this week.
To attract attention, the restaurant advertised the “Big Belly King Challenge” on social media. However, Yibin city officials came to investigate whether the restaurant violated anti-food waste laws.
Eating competitions are relatively common in the West, but can be a sensitive issue in China, where a famine in the 1950s and 1960s killed an estimated 45 million people. Several restaurants have been investigated for hosting large-scale eating challenges.
Spicy wontons, a specialty of Sichuan province, China. Photo: Redhousespice
Chinese President Xi Jinping has described food waste as “shocking and distressing,” and in March he declared agricultural supplies a cornerstone of national security.
China enacted a law against food waste in 2021, after the government harshly criticized bloggers who livestreamed themselves bingeing to attract viewers. Many bloggers were subsequently banned from social media.
Under the law, restaurant owners can be fined 10,000 yuan ($1,400) if their establishments “encourage or mislead customers into ordering excessive food, causing waste.” Radio and television stations, as well as those who publish video and audio online, face a maximum fine of 10 times that amount if they are found to be involved in “producing, publishing, promoting programs or messages about binge eating.”
According to the local market regulator, the restaurant in Yibin "displayed excessive eating behavior and caused customers to over-order."
However, some Chinese social media users believe the authorities have overreacted.
"Does this count as a waste? Why not let people compete to see who can eat the most? Does the food that is not consumed there really go to the poor?", one wrote on Weibo.
Another said the market regulator should focus on food safety, such as the contaminated baby formula scandal, illegally recycled cooking oil contaminated with food waste or even wastewater.
Huyen Le (According to CNN )
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