Food Safety for Olympic Sailors

The city now has 173 approved agricultural bases, 989 livestock and poultry farms and 74 eco-friendly aquaculture sites all reaching the approved standards to supply the competitors, officials and visitors for the games.

"The food project for the Olympics in Qingdao guarantees food safety for the event and treats sailors and tourists to diverse, delicious food," said Jiang Jing, deputy secretary-general of Qingdao Sailing Committee.

The city government began preparation and adopted a series of measures in 2004 to ensure food quality.

Over the past four years, local authorities have established a mechanism to ensure a safe supply of food through close inspection of hygiene and supervised agricultural and aquaculture sites.

An expert panel established regulations and rules to govern how and where food is produced.

The sailing competition itself will be served by an exclusive food distribution center and six officially designated hotels.

Local farmers have been encouraged to adopt new farming techniques, develop organic agriculture and use advanced testing for pesticide residue, heavy metals and microbes.

The city government has invested 59 million yuan in food inspection equipment and designated eight inspection institutions to control food quality.

All foodstuffs will carry a special tag to mark their Olympics purpose and sealed before they are allowed into the sailing center. Records will be kept to ensure careful monitoring of the supply chain.

Over the past two years, the authorities have taken 623,100 vegetable and 51,000 pork samples. Some 79,900 kg vegetables were destroyed because they had excess levels of pesticides.

The authorities have also been clamping down on illegal food producers and 2,700 have been put out of business since 2004.