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High-tech solution - Olympic Games begin in China in one year
SI.com - More Sports - High-tech solution - Monday August 6, 2007 2:15PM Embarrassed by recent scandals over the safety of Chinese food products, organizing officials for next year's Beijing Olympics spelled out high-tech plans Monday to make sure healthy food is delivered to the 10,500 athletes who will reside 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.
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"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."
China will use Global positioning satellites to help oversee food production, processing factories and food hygiene, Wang said.
"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 U.S. also has blocked imports of five types of farmed seafood from China that were found to contain unapproved drugs.
In a separate development Monday, the Beijing-based Qianxihe Food Group, an Olympic sponsor, said it has begun selling a hormone-free line of pork for the Games, a company official said.
The company's pigs have been fed food without hormones and are part of the "Olympics Special Supply Pork" range, which will be consumed by athletes and can be bought in supermarkets by ordinary citizens, said the official, who would give only her surname Tong.
Last month, China announced it was taking steps to ensure athletes' food is safe and free of substances that could trigger a positive result in tests for banned performance-enhancing drugs.
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