The Taipei city government on Thursday changed the rules on an original plan to invite children and primary school students to join eating competitions to be held later this month, after strong criticism of the idea surfaced in the local media.

Instead of making children compete with each other to see who can eat more during a fixed period of time, the organizers now want participating children to taste a bowl of minced meat with rice and write an essay or draw a picture to express their feeling after tasting the food.

Making children eat too much too quickly is not a healthy exercise, therefore the competition for children will now focus more on creativity and the participants will be reminded to eat slowly, said Taipei City Mayor Hau Lung-bin （郝龍斌）.

The Department of Economic Development under the Taipei city government, which sponsors the event, had originally said that parents had been invited to accompany children taking part in the "fun" competitions and added that all participants would be covered by insurance in case any of them become ill from stuffing themselves with food.

The competitions to see who can force down the most minced meat with rice, a traditional Taiwanese dish, is part of the city governments efforts to promote the city as a food capital following its annual beef noodle festival.

The participants would be divided into four groups: kindergarten age children, elementary school children, a Taiwan region group and an international group. Prizes will be awarded to those competitors who can eat the fastest and consume the most food within three minutes.

However, some groups expressed anger over the competition, pointing out that inviting children and students to overeat would be bad for their health and could lead to accidents.

Besides the expressing health concerns, some experts also said that the eating contest would send the wrong message to children - that it is socially acceptable to gobble down food.

The groups were also angered at the fact that the participants would have to sign a document absolving the city government of any responsibility. In response, Hau said that the requirement to sign the absolution statement has been changed to signing a "note of caution."