Posted on 02/22/2008 7:40:21 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Food at Olympics is safe: Officials
By Zhu Zhe (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-02-22 06:51
Beijing Thursday reaffirmed the safety of food at the Olympic Games after media reports that the US contingent plans to prepare its own meals at the Games due to safety concerns.
"We've made great efforts to ensure safe supplies for the Games and we hope athletes dine together," Kang Yi, chief of the food division of the Games services department, told a press conference.
"If the US delegation is not at these gatherings, I would personally regret it," she said.
Some foreign media including The New York Times reported earlier this month that the US Olympic Committee had arranged with sponsors to ship about 11,000 kg of lean protein to Beijing for the Games in response to concerns about the potential impact of veterinary drugs and insecticides on athletes. But Kang said her division had received no formal notification from the US regarding the plan.
She also made it clear that according to established international practice, foreign athletes cannot take their own food into the Olympic Village.
Tang Yunhua, spokeswoman for the Beijing municipal office for food safety, also said such worries were unwarranted.
She said the city had spent nearly three years developing an extensive monitoring and supervision system over the entire supply chain from breeders to slaughterhouses and distribution trucks.
"We're very confident and capable of offering safe food for the Games," she said, adding that quality controls adopted by the city before the Olympics now exceed international standards.
In response to fears that antibiotics and growth stimulants used by some breeders to boost yields could lead to positive doping tests, officials said there was no evidence to prove it.
"Globally, there have been no scientific reports that show drug tests yield positive results after athletes or people eat certain types of meat," Lu Yong, director of the Beijing municipal food safety monitoring center, told the press conference.
"China has very strict rules. Forbidden drugs cannot be used in breeding, so we can guarantee safety," he said.
Sounds like we got trouble. They are not backing down.
We may have the "Great Food Fight" of 2008.
Ping!
Over/under on number of posts before Belushi shows up?
“China has very strict rules. Forbidden drugs cannot be used in breeding, so we can guarantee safety,” he said.
And if anyone believes that, I have a bridge I’d like to sell them........
Better fed (properly) than dead.
I wonder what the tourists will eat?
No first hand experience at the Olympics, but at the marathon Olympic trials competitors used their own fluid bottles to ensure no shenanigans. At Pan Am games we could eat at the village, hotels, restaurants, etc.
I call BS on this story.
There should be a term coined for the Chinese bold face lies.
Now I’m starting to wonder what China would intentionally do to the food to disqualify (or sicken) our athletes if the US were to start winning “too many” medals.
“I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse........” - Don Vito Corleone
It might be a simple matter for a few nations to form a food swapping cartel using random orders and drive the Chinese nuts.
The threat China poses to long term US interests is seriously underreported and underestimated (even here)IMO.
They got all in a snit when our Navy shot down the satellite, they support and block any meaningful sanctions against Sudan.
They sell us poisoned everything, they own most of our debt.
Some of us still remember how they run over peaceful demonstrators with tanks.
Any conincidence China’s marketing arm WalMart is from BillyBubba and HillBillary’s state?
“Made in China” ought to be anathema to any patriotic American. (especially for food, which anyone would be crazy to eat!)
Bawd Faced Wies?
Amen.
Yes!!!
Yummy Crab Cakes with a dash of mercury
and a tasty Bun lightly dusted with Lead
wash it all down with China’s favorite beer..Goo Goo Glycol!
No Law suits please.
Snort.
Thanks. I need to clean the coffee mess.
But, with the awful air pollution and some food poisonings of tourists, plus everything else, IMO the ChiComs will deeply regret hosting the Olympics. They will get exactly the opposite publicity abroad they want.
As for domestic politics, we'll see how effective they are at using the Olympics to prop up a regime which is losing control.
Two guys from my home office were in Shanghai, China recently. They said the air was really awful and a lot of the food in markets looked old or spoiled. Unless there is a seperate food supply going into the hotels, I’ll wait and see.
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