- A restaurant in China offered free meals to customers who could eat 108 spicy dumplings, CNN reported.
- But local authorities are now investigating whether it broke laws against food waste, per reports.
Authorities in China are investigating whether a restaurant violated the country's strict laws against food waste by offering free meals to customers who successfully polished off 108 spicy dumplings, according to CNN.
The restaurant in the city of Yibin in the southwestern province of Sichuan offered a "king of big stomach challenge," which involved customers competing to eat 108 chaoshous, or spicy Sichuan-style wontons, as quickly as possible to win a prize, the outlet reported.
It advertised the challenge on social media, but ran into trouble after the competition caught the attention of the State Administration for Market Regulation, state-affiliated news outlet The Cover reported, per CNN.
The restaurant in Yibin "demonstrates behaviors of binge eating and drinking and inducing customers to order excessively," The Cover reported, citing the government agency.
Authorities said they would open an investigation into whether the restaurant, which was not named, violated anti-food-waste laws, The Cover said, with the restaurant one of several being probed over similar competitions.
According to The Global Times, China introduced laws against food waste in 2021, in response to the prevalence of "mukbang" videos online.
The law bans food bloggers from making and distributing binge-eating videos, with fines of up to 100,000 yuan ($13,815) for those who violate it, the Global Times reported.
The law also punishes restaurants that encourage customers to make excessive food orders, with a fine of up to 10,000 yuan ($1,382) for those that do, the outlet said.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations think tank, food security has been prioritized by the Chinese Community Party ever since the Great Chinese Famine in the late 1950s and early 1960s, which killed tens of millions of people.