Noodle shop owner admits to lacing food with opium poppy seeds

How not to make customers become regulars at your restaurant: Turn them into drug addicts.

One Chinese noodle shop owner has admitted to lacing his dishes with opium poppy seeds in the hopes of attracting repeat customers.

The owner, identified in the media only as Zhang, confessed to police that he purchased 2kg of poppy shells — the bud of the plant where seeds are found — last month, crushed them into a powder and started adding them to the noodles at his shop in Yan’an, in Shaanxi province.

Zhang was caught when Liu Juyou, a customer, tested positive for opium during a routine anti-drinking-and-driving urine test by traffic police. He was shocked by the result and was detained by police for 15 days.

Convinced that the positive test was the result of something he ate — and desperate to prove his innocence — Liu encouraged his family members to also eat at the noodle shop then get tested. They, too, tested positive.

Police launched an investigation, which led to Zhang’s arrest, detention and confession.

Zhang was detained for 10 days.

According to the South China Morning Post, police said that the unprocessed seeds contain enough opiates to build up in the body and trigger a positive drug test result. Over time, the opiate-laced noodles would have an addictive effect.

Sadly, in this case, the customer isn’t always right — even when the customer’s right.

Despite finding Zhang guilty of lacing his food with opiates, police still dismissed Liu’s appeal against his detention, claiming their top priority was punishing drug users.

Until they were banned in China, poppy shells were a popular ingredient used in hot pot sauce.