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Beijing Olympic Officials Promise High-Tech Solution to Food Safety Issues

Posted on: Monday, 6 August 2007, 12:08 CDT

By STEPHEN WADE

BEIJING (AP) - Global positioning satellites will be used to ensure food safety at next year's Beijing Olympics.

Embarrassed by recent scandals over the safety of Chinese food products, Olympic organizing officials spelled out high-tech plans Monday to make sure healthy food is delivered to the 10,500 athletes residing next year in the Olympic Village.

The move comes just two days before Beijing marks the one-year-away date for the start of the 2008 Summer Games, highlighted by a gigantic stage show in Tiananmen Square.

"We are very confident about ensuring food safety in Beijing," said Wang Wei, an executive vice president of the Beijing organizing committee. "Actually, Beijing has hosted a lot big events and there have been no problems regarding food safety in these events."

Wang described an elaborate monitoring system, which will oversee food production, processing factories and food hygiene.

"All food entering the Olympic Village and other facilities will be given an Olympic food safety logistics code," Wang said.

"Also, the food transportation vehicles will be globally positioned and tracked. The whole process will be monitored from the start of production through transportation to the end users," he said without elaborating.

Although most athletes will eat specialized diets provided by their own team officials, Olympic organizers have also promised to test food samples on mice, the state-run China Daily newspaper reported recently.

Wang said extra measures would also be taken to ensure "food safety for the general public."

"During the games some special monitoring mechanisms will also be applied to monitor restaurants and public food sellers to let people know how they can buy safe food," Wang said.

Questions over the safety of Chinese products arose earlier this year when a Chinese-made pet food ingredient was linked to the deaths of cats and dogs in North America. Since then, Chinese goods ranging from toothpaste to tires have been banned or recalled in numerous countries.

The United States also has blocked imports of five types of farmed seafood from China that were found to contain unapproved drugs.

Source: Canadian Press

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