City creates recipe to ensure food quality

A comprehensive system to ensure food safety for the Olympics officially began operation in Qingdao on April 1, another part of the city's complex preparations for hosting the 2008 Olympic sailing competition.

"The food project for the Olympics in Qingdao guarantees food safety for the event and treats sailors and tourists to diverse, delicious food," says 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 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, including the Shangri-La, Qingdao and Haiqing Hotels, Jiang said.

The city now has 173 standardized agricultural bases, 989 livestock and poultry farms and 74 eco-friendly aquaculture sites.

Local farmers are 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.

The canteen at the sailing center, as well as hotels and restaurants, has been equipped with testing instruments and equipment for food safety.

Over the past two years, the authorities have sampled 623,100 lots of vegetables and 51,000 lots of pork. Some 79,900 kg vegetables were destroyed for having excess levels of pesticides.

A number of campaigns checking illegal food producers have been launched since 2004. As a result, more than 2,700 illegal food operations have been banned.

(China Daily 04/09/2008 page24)