A noodle shop in Yan'an, in Shaanxi province China has admitted it secretly added opium to its food in an attempt to hook its customers and keep them coming back for more.

The owner of the restaurant, who is only known by the name Zhang, was held by police for allegedly lacing his noodles with poppy seeds, according to the South China Morning Post.  

Like Us on Facebook

The use of the illegal additive was discovered when Liu Juyou, one of the noodle shop's customers, tested positive for drug use at a traffic stop. Insisting that he had never taken drugs in his life, Liu suspected the noodle shop was behind his failed drug test. To test his theory, he sent some family members to eat at the noodle shop and then had them get tested for drugs. They subsequently failed the tests.

The seeds, which used to be a popular cooking ingredient, are now banned in China. Many consider the seeds to be as addictive as the other parts of the poppy plant used to make opium. According to police, the unprocessed seeds have enough opiates to build up in the body over time and eventually cause a positive drugs test result.

Police said that Zhang allegedly bought 4.4 lbs, or $100 worth of poppy buds, which he turned into a powder and mixed it into his noodle dishing to serve to unsuspecting customers.  Liu had served 15 days in jail for testing positive for drug usage. Zhang was detained for 10 days for his actions.

This is not the first time a restaurant has been caught lacing its food with opium in an attempt to drum up repeat business by getting customers addicted to their food. Last year, two restaurants in the Guangzhou area were also caught using ground up poppy seeds in their dishes.

Those restaurants had been caught by The China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), which had been conducting a series of inspections on restaurants in Guangzhou. The owners of those restaurants served no jail time, but were fined US$8,200.

TagsOpium in food, poppy seeds, yan'an, noodle shop, laced food, china food and drug, caught by noodle with poppy seeds