Eatery in China under probe for violating anti-waste law with dumpling-eating contest

A restaurant in China’s Sichuan province is being investigated by the local authorities for allegedly flouting an anti-food waste law after it held a speed-eating contest for customers to wolf down more than 100 dumplings in the fastest time for a free meal.

The restaurant, which was not named in local media reports, advertised the “King of the Big Stomach” challenge on social media, attracting patrons to eat 108 chaoshou, or spicy wonton dumplings, during the contest in June. It is not clear from the reports how many customers participated in the challenge and how quickly they ate all the chaoshou.

The authorities later reportedly launched an investigation after receiving a complaint that the challenge led to food wastage.

The challenge, which was filmed and posted on social media platforms in China, “misled” people into ordering excessively, resulting in food wastage, said the local authorities.

Other food establishments in the country have been investigated

for violating the anti-food waste law.

A hotel in Fujian province is also being probed over a contest in March 2022 where participants had to finish eating a 3kg burger in 30 minutes.

Food wastage has been a problem for the country.

In 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that the issue of food waste is “shocking and distressing”, and highlighted the importance of maintaining food security.

Every year, at least 34 million tonnes of food are wasted in restaurants in the country, according to a 2020 survey conducted by a task force of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.

China passed the law against wasting food in 2021. Under the law, restaurant owners can be fined up to 10,000 yuan (S$1,900) if their establishments “induce or mislead customers” into ordering excessively “to cause obvious waste”.

Some netizens have questioned why the authorities have to investigate such issues.

“Does the government need to take care of this matter? Does this matter have to be managed by the government?” a Weibo user said on the platform.

Another wrote: “Put more effort into checking food safety; this is what people care about.”