Chinese shop owner forced to eat cockroach ‘found in food’ or pay
A shop owner in southern China has been forced to eat a cockroach by a customer who said he found it in his plate of fried noodles.
The customer had ordered the noodles at a shop in Changsha, Hunan province, on Monday evening, Changsha Evening News reported.
Upon finishing the noodles, the customer then beckoned the shop owner over and showed her the cockroach, saying that he had found it in his food.
The customer then demanded a 5,000 yuan (HK$5,800) compensation or for the owner to eat the cockroach.
The shop owner, unsure if it was a scam, refused to pay the customer the money and swallowed the cockroach instead.
But the customer went on pressing her for compensation and even called the media to the scene, the report said.
When reporters arrived at the shop, however, the customer was nowhere to be found.
It remains unclear if the cockroach was planted in the food to scam the shop owner.
A waitress at the shop told reporters she was upset to see her boss humiliated by the customer. The shop had been in business for 11 years, she said.
On Tuesday, officers from the local food and drug administration inspected the shop and found its kitchen using old equipment. It also did not have adequate measures to keep rats and cockroaches away.
The shop’s licence has been suspended for five days until the owner makes the required changes.
The owner said she was happy to comply with the officers’ recommendations and was glad she did not give in to the customer’s unreasonable request for compensation.
