Thread: U.S. to bring its own food to Beijing Olympics

U.S. to bring its own food to Beijing Olympics

By STEPHEN WADE
Associated Press

BEIJING — The United States Olympic Committee's plan to bring its own food to China has disappointed the leader of food services for the Beijing Olympics.

"I feel it's a pity that they (Americans) decided to take their own food," Kang Yi, the head of the Food Division for the Beijing organizing committee, said today. She added the USOC had not officially notified her department of the plan.

The USOC is planning to transport tons of meat and other foods to a training camp at Beijing Normal University.

The 600-plus American athletes are expected to eat their daily meals at the Athletes Village, USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said. But the U.S. delegation also includes an additional 400-plus personnel — support coaches, trainers, etc. — who are not eligible for food service at the village and therefore will eat most of their meals at Beijing Normal.

Seibel said the food service at Beijing Normal will serve as a supplement to the Village, which will house about 17,000 athletes and officials during the Aug. 8-24 Games and be capable of serving 6,000 meals simultaneously.

"We have absolutely no concerns about the quality and safety of the food in the Athletes Village," Seibel said. "Also, we will be sourcing products from local suppliers for our training table, in addition to bringing some products with us. We had the same approach during the Athens and Torino Games, as well."

Food safety in China has become a major issue for the Olympics, following recent incidents of tainted products and reports of the heavy use of drugs and insecticides in food production. Officials are aware a positive drug test triggered by contaminated food could ruin an athlete's career and generate a public-relations disaster for China, which is intent on showing itself as a modern, sophisticated country.

"We have made lots of preparations to ensure that they (athletes) can get together at the Olympic Games," said Kang, speaking at a news conference today on food safety.

Another official said there was no evidence drugs and growth stimulants used in meat production could trigger positive doping tests.

"As far as we know we haven't found any scientific report on this," said Lu Yong, director of the Beijing Municipal Food Safety Monitoring Center.

Tang Yunhua, a spokeswoman for the Beijing Municipal Office for Food Safety, repeated today the plans for extensive monitoring from the pasture to the plate — using bar codes, satellite tracking devices and labor-intensive operations — for food served at the Olympic Village.

"We can guarantee the food safety during the Olympic Games," Tang said.

"We have a safety plan during the Olympics Games to guarantee our venues will be safe," she said. "And the standards for Olympic food safety are much more strict than international standards. So all the delegations can enjoy the food provided during the Olympic Games."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hea ... 59234.html

It's amazing ... the US Team is smart enough to eat food produced in America.. but we the people are forced by our politicians to eat the crap coming out of China

I wish that we had more of a choice to bring things home that are not from China. I wish that the United States produced and manufactured more products and that "BUY USA," was the focus of more Americans.

Ephesians 4:32

How could anyone feel comfortable eating in China. The stories almost come every week about something being contaminated.

I think they should of had the Olympics somewhere else. I've never heard of such continuous problems coming from a country we trade with on such a large scale. They killed our pets, poisoned our children's toys, poisoned our drugs and food imports. How are we suppose to trust????

The US should not even be in Communist China. Why not boycott them like we did Cuba?

I would think bringing your own food to a major event like this would be the right thing to do for any athlete, their diet is very strict and why take a chance on coming down with something after you have worked so hard.
Just commen sense to me. After the games go out and eat what you want.

This is very smart. I got so sick in China my stomach blew up like a basketball. The Chinese-American person (grew up in China) I was with got sick also!