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Olympians Will Have Their Food Tested in Beijing
by
findingDulcinea Staff
China pledges to establish a “Food Safety Command Center” to look for toxins in meals at the 2008 Olympics, and ingredients will be traced using GPS. The organizers cite concerns about terrorism, but other sources say the danger is simply the local cuisine.
30-Second Summary
“Precautions must be taken to avert any trace of terrorist attacks on our food supply chain,” Zhang Zhikan, the head of the Beijing Industry and Commerce Bureau, told Xinhua News Agency.
But in a nation beset by problems arising from lax regulatory standards and the widespread misuse of chemicals and drugs in food, terrorism is probably not the most pressing danger facing summer Olympians when they sit down to eat.
In fact, in November 2006, Yang Shumin, the former head of China’s Olympic doping control center, warned that athletes dining out in Beijing might test positive on various drug tests without ever having knowingly taken steroids.
“Chinese food is contaminated with banned drugs like anabolic steroids to such an extent that the possibility is real,” Yang is quoted as saying in China Daily.
In the same month as Yang issued his advice, Zhao Xinsheng, a member of the Beijing Municipal Health Inspection Bureau, announced that all the foods used to prepare meals in the Olympic Village would be tested on white lab mice.
Mice show adverse reactions within 17 hours of ingesting a contaminant, and would thus produce results much faster than laboratory tests.
Although it is unknown whether that plan is still viable, Executive Vice President of the Beijing Olympic Committee Wang Wei recently said that global-positioning satellites would be used to track all Olympic food.
Few details were given, but Wang did say, “The whole process will be monitored from the start of production through transportation to the end users.”
Beijing’s latest efforts cap a year in which the discovery of chemically contaminated Chinese pet food and seafood heightened international safety concerns.
But in a nation beset by problems arising from lax regulatory standards and the widespread misuse of chemicals and drugs in food, terrorism is probably not the most pressing danger facing summer Olympians when they sit down to eat.
In fact, in November 2006, Yang Shumin, the former head of China’s Olympic doping control center, warned that athletes dining out in Beijing might test positive on various drug tests without ever having knowingly taken steroids.
“Chinese food is contaminated with banned drugs like anabolic steroids to such an extent that the possibility is real,” Yang is quoted as saying in China Daily.
In the same month as Yang issued his advice, Zhao Xinsheng, a member of the Beijing Municipal Health Inspection Bureau, announced that all the foods used to prepare meals in the Olympic Village would be tested on white lab mice.
Mice show adverse reactions within 17 hours of ingesting a contaminant, and would thus produce results much faster than laboratory tests.
Although it is unknown whether that plan is still viable, Executive Vice President of the Beijing Olympic Committee Wang Wei recently said that global-positioning satellites would be used to track all Olympic food.
Few details were given, but Wang did say, “The whole process will be monitored from the start of production through transportation to the end users.”
Beijing’s latest efforts cap a year in which the discovery of chemically contaminated Chinese pet food and seafood heightened international safety concerns.
Headline Links: Protecting the Olympians
Zhang told the press that the Olympic Food Safety Command Center would be responsible for all dealing with any food-relating emergencies during the Aug. 8–24 games. He also said that all food at the Olympics would be checked against specific technical standards. Though what those standards are was not made clear.
Source: International Herald Tribune
On Aug. 6, 2007, the Associated Press reported that Beijing would use a GPS monitoring system to keep tabs on food supplies for the Summer games. According to the AP, this system will also be used 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.
Source: MSNBC
Background: Rodent food testers; China’s export woes
On Nov. 16, 2006, the BBC reported that white lab mice will test all ingredients used in preparing the athletes’ food in the Olympic Village. Because of the rodents’ quick reaction time—17 hours—all testing will be done the day before the ingredient is used. The BBC also reported that all the kitchens would have 24-hour guards, and storage would be constantly monitored.
Source: The BBC
‘U.S. Detains Farmed Seafood from China’
In June 2007, the United States Food and Drug Administration detained shipments of five species of seafood from China after finding that they contained two antibiotics and two antifungals illegal in the United States. The shipments included catfish, basa, dace, shrimp, and eel, and contained traces of the illegal antibiotics nitrofuran and fluoroquinolone and the illegal antifungals malachite green and gentian violet.
Source: ABC News
‘States Ban Catfish Imports from China Over Tests’
In early May 2007, frozen catfish fillets imported from China were found to contain two antibiotics banned by the FDA. The discovery prompted Alabama to ban the imported fish, Mississippi to halt sale of the fillets, and Louisiana and Arkansas to institute mandatory testing on all catfish imported from China.
Source: NPR
‘Toxin in Pet Food Added Deliberately’
In spring 2007, thousands of pets died from eating pet food containing melamine, a coal derivative, which had been imported from China. Though the addition of melamine is illegal under U.S. law, American food safety investigators discovered that Chinese suppliers had routinely added the derivative to animal feed to boost the level of protein detected in tests. The contamination led to pet stores pulling more than 60 million products from their shelves in a voluntary national recall.
Source: findingDulcinea
Related Topics: Doped-up food and anti-rain rockets
On Nov. 30, 2006, China Daily reported that the Olympians faced the threat of testing positive for illegal, performance enhancing drugs simply from dining out in Beijing. “Concern about it goes to the top of the Chinese Government,” Yang, at the time a researcher at the doping control center who also advises the government on food safety, told the paper.
Source: China Daily
Having claimed to bring rain to arid regions of China, Beijing’s Weather Modification Office is set to unleash cloud-busting ordnance to keep the 2008 Olympic Games dry. On July 16, 2007, China’s Meteorological Association announced it would use rockets to destroy any cloud that threatened the blue skies above the ‘08 Olympic Games in Beijing. State-controlled weather may sound improbable, but Russia used similar techniques to prevent rain at a military parade in 2005.
Source: findingDulcinea
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