Making diners sick of a competing restaurant -- literally

[marmar]

(NPR) Here at NPR, we've heard about some wacky food scandals. There have been gingerbread houses harboring bad bacteria, turkeys trotting around with arsenic in their guts and a prison hooch that brewed up botulism.

But a recent report from China may take the cake –- or should we say, the eggplant.

Two people in a Beijing restaurant intentionally laced the eggplant dishes with enough of a blood pressure drug to send 80 diners to the hospital. Everyone recovered, but 34 of them had to have their blood pumped to remove the drug.

Over the past few years, China has experienced a string of food safety scandals. Steroid-boosted pork and antifreeze-tainted vinegar sickened hundreds last year. And, back 2008, melamine-spiked baby formula sent shock waves through the country. But why the heck would a restaurant want to harm its customers?

According to a recent report in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the two perpetrators were in cahoots with the restaurant down the street, and they wanted to give it a "competitive advantage" by sickening their rivals' diners. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/12/31/168346925/docs-discover-drug-spiked-eggplant-sent-beijing-diners-to-hospital

[Pretzel_Warrior]

1. All things are fair in capitalism

[Cirque du So-What]

3. Wouldn't surprise me

to find that some capitalists are plotting something like this right in the good ol' US of A.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

4. Or have done so already

[HappyMe]

2. Wow!

What the hell? Tourists stay home. Residents of Beijing, eat at home.