THE production of hit Chinese variety show “Youth With You” Season 3 was suspended after the show, in which trainees compete to become idols, was involved in a scandal of wasting a large amount of milk, amid the country’s strengthened efforts in eradicating wasting food.

The scandal sparked heated criticism on social media, with many netizens calling for legal penalties for those who poured the milk into sewers, and the production team for designing this method even after China adopted the law against food waste April 29.

The suspension was announced by the Beijing Municipal Radio and Television Bureau on Tuesday. The notice did not specify reasons for the suspension, but it confirmed there were problems found after authorities investigated, based on public complaints, and it urged the production team to rectify the problems.

The production and broadcast platform of the show, iQiyi said Wednesday on Sina Weibo that it accepts all the criticism and will correct mistakes.

The show has been under criticism online before the suspension was announced. Many criticisms were targeted at the competition mechanism of the show, which encourages viewers to buy and consume bottled Mengniu milk as they need to scan the QR codes inside the caps of the bottles to vote for their favorite trainees. Mengniu, a major dairy brand in China, is the biggest sponsor of the show.

The mechanism led young fans to purchase a large amount of the milk they couldn’t drink, so they just scanned the codes and poured the milk into sewers. A video showing piles of bottled milk in possibly hundreds of boxes, being dumped directly into sewers went viral online in late April, which was widely criticized.

“They forgot how many children in rural areas cannot afford one bottle of milk and their well-off lives make them forget how precious food is. The production team and the milk company should all be punished under the new law,” one netizen commented on Sina Weibo.

Xinhua also posted a commentary Tuesday, criticizing the production company and the sponsor who forgot their social responsibility when they decided to use such a promotion method. The behavior misled young people and eroded their values.

The new law against food waste stipulates that individuals and organizations that make and circulate binge-eating programs will face a fine of between 10,000 (US$1,545) and 100,000 yuan. The program producer may be ordered to suspend its business and the people in charge will be held accountable. The law also allows restaurants to charge diners an extra fee if they leave excessive amounts of food uneaten.(Global Times)