IFOCE Creates Endangered Entrées List. Guacamole Among Those Included

West Coast Drought Leads Major League Eating To Create First-Ever ‘Endangered Entrées’ List

League Designates Guacamole as ‘Endangered,’ Cites Climate Change

New York, NY March 5, 2014—Major League Eating has announced the creation of the first-ever Endangered Entrées List highlighting foods that are either currently endangered, or threatened to become endangered.

As part of its announcement, MLE designated guacamole as an Endangered Entrée based on recent reports that the California drought and climate change have impacted farmer’s ability to produce avocados. It is estimated that California could experience a 40 percent reduction in avocado production in coming years.

As policy, MLE will not conduct eating contests with any food it classifies as endangered, and will give special consideration to contests involving threatened entrees, perhaps shortening the contest duration and number of participants.

“It would be unconscionable to hold an eating contest with an endangered entree, allowing eaters such as Joey Chestnut and Miki Sudo to decimate the last remaining reserve of that food,” said MLE Chair George Shea, who noted that Chestnut recently consumed 141 hard-boiled eggs in eight minutes while Sudo ate 104.

Last year, MLE temporarily suspended all bacon-eating contests during a bacon shortage, setting a precedent for the creation of this list. MLE had no actual bacon-eating contests scheduled at the time, but said the suspension was still a powerful statement that resonated with the bacon-eating public.

Entrées on MLE’s Endangered List, which will be banned from inclusion in sanctioned contests, include: giant sea turtle soup, sautéed lingcod, fire-roasted lemur, sealion (steaks), and oven-baked orange roughy. Entrées on MLE’s Threatened List, which will receive special consideration when the subject of a contest, include: beluga sturgeon caviar, sautéed monkfish, giant panda (steaks and stews), Aberdare mole shrew (sauces) and roasted greater sage grouse.

The full Endangered Entrée List is available on MLE’s website, www.ifoce.com. MLE said it is likely that the list will expand in coming years as climate change continues to impact agriculture.