China’s new food-waste law could fine mukbang content creators more than RM61,000

Mukbang, also known as “online eating shows”, might now be a thing of the past—but only in China. Chinese President Xi Jinping spearheaded a new food-waste law to China’s highest legal committee last week, which states that anyone in China who posts videos online that promote overeating will face fines of up to 100,000 yuan (RM61,790).

In August, Xi Jinping said that the amount of food that was wasted on the mainland was “shocking”, and urged people to maintain a sense of crisis about food security. He also wanted to curb the trend amongst internet celebrities who’ve gained a massive following by eating large amounts of food in a short time on video.

Mukbang videos became popular in South Korea in 2010, and since then it has become a worldwide phenomenon. There are also Malaysian mukbang stars like Isaac Osman. In December last year, there were about 40,000 new videos related to food per day on Douyin—many of these videos tried to attract views by eating unimaginable quantities of food.

According to SCMP, any most-viewed mukbang videos feature “beautiful, often petite young women eating their way through mammoth-sized meals”. The meals can be things like 10 bowls of spicy noodles, to strange-looking eats like geoduck.

Under the new law being considered by China’s Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, binge-eating shows and competitive eaters will be banned. And in addition to media organisations and content creators that promote over-eating, restaurants failing to reduce food wastage can also be fined up to 10,000 yuan (about RM6,100).

The reactions to this proposed law are not entirely positive. It’s reported that one person considers this law to be “idealistic,” another says that it is “catering to the leadership.”

[ SOURCE, IMAGE SOURCE ]

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