China to scrutinize Olympic food

[Woodmonkey]

Why did they agree to send the Olympics to China? They can't even be certain that the food fed to the athletes will be up to standards.


China to scrutinize Olympic food


Food for the Beijing Olympics will be highly scrutinized and supplied only by approved companies, a Chinese official said Monday while reporting on recent efforts to keep harmful food out of the national supply chain and a crackdown on shoddy toy makers.

The product safety campaign that began in August surveyed 3,000 toy producers and led to officials yanking the export licenses of 600, said Pu Changcheng, vice minister of the General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

"Product quality and food safety are global issues," Pu said.

China launched the initiative — part public relations drive, part crackdown — after several countries recalled Chinese-made toys containing lead paint and other dangerous parts last year.

Pu said lax quality supervision was to blame for the companies losing their licenses, but gave no specifics. He also defended the safety record of Chinese toys, saying many failed safety standards due to design flaws or the changing regulations of importing countries.

The campaign has also focused attention on the country's chronic domestic food safety woes, particularly as Beijing prepares to welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors for the Aug. 8-24 Summer Games.

Past food scares have centered around fake milk powder that led to the deaths of at least a dozen babies and the use of the banned cancer-causing industrial dye Sudan Red to color egg yolks.

"All the food supplied during the Olympic Games must be produced by accredited companies who have qualified for market access," Pu said. He did not elaborate on the requirements, but said it was the normal accreditation procedure for any Chinese food producer.

The food will be distributed from specially designated centers, and will undergo repeated inspections from production to consumption, he said.

During the recently concluded nationwide campaign, officials successfully curbed the use of nonfood materials or recycled food, and clamped down on the use of harmful preservatives and colorings, Pu said. Other progress included registering 98,000 food producers and stepping up efforts to create a mechanism to track food products.

But he said the country's many small food workshops remained difficult to regulate and often produced substandard food.

The Source

[conlor]

NOW they decide to start scrutinizing their products.

[redtanker]

I have been doing it for a while