The behaviour of some food vloggers entails serious wastage of food in China. On August 13, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV criticised online eating programmes that show participants consuming an excessive volume of food, and even spitting out the food after eating, describing them as “an extreme example of food waste”. Chinese mainstream video media such as Douyu, Douyin, Kuaishou, Station B, Xiaohongshu, Weibo have all responded by deleting or removing relevant video content, and even suspending broadcasting and banning accounts.
In fact, eating live-streams are one of the most popular video content. For example, the topic of “big stomach king” videos on Douyin has been played 7.16 billion times, and various forms of eating live-streaming content are endless, such as the challenge of ten burgers in 10 minutes, eat 20 ramen noodles in one hour, etc.
Compared with other live-streaming categories that require performances, the "eating live-streaming" is a lower standard. You can accumulate attention as long as you can eat. Many anchors earn huge profits through users' rewards and cooperation with businesses. To get more engagement, some anchors pay the cost of their health and lives, bringing negative impacts to individuals and society. Also, some anchors try to cover up the "fake eating" through editing and other tricks.
Although the negative images and fraudulent method of "eating live-streaming" emerge one after another, it still attracts the attention of many viewers. The reason is that this kind of live streaming cater to the psychological needs of users and makes up for the lonely feeling of eating alone. Another reason is that many anchors give detailed descriptions of the feeling and taste of the food in the process of eating, which makes up for the "substitute taste psychology" of the audience.