Beijing's mice to get first bite at Olympics

November 16, 2006

Times Online November 16, 2006 Beijing's mice to get first bite at OlympicsFrom Jane Macartney of The Times in Beijing The job of food taster is one fraught with danger. But no sacrifice was too great to protect the lives of the great and the good, the emperors of Rome or of China. And so it will be for athletes taking part in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. White mice have been designated as official food testers for the Olympics to ensure that the athletes are not poisoned. Zhao Xinsheng, an official at the Beijing Municipal Health Inspection Bureau, said: "Milk, alcohol, salad, rice, oil, salt and seasonings will be tested by white mice 24 hours before they are used in cooking or served to athletes." Why mice? And why 24 hours? The mice will develop an adverse reaction to poisoning within 17 hours - more quickly than using other test methods such as bacterial cultures, Mr Zhao explained. No security measure is too small if it will ensure that the first Olympic Games to be held on Chinese soil are to be a world-class success and, indeed, a coming-out party for a China that is in the running to become the world’s next superpower. Food storage areas will be fitted with alarms,

video cameras and fire controls, and kitchens guarded around the clock. Vans delivering food for the Olympics will all be equipped with global positioning systems to ensure they can find their way and also so that police can monitor their progress to fend off hijackers. Drivers and other personnel responsible for the food deliveries will not be allowed to leave the vehicle without special approval. The aim is to prevent would-be saboteurs from hiding explosives in the vans, officials said. Beijing has trained a crack force of 150 police, experts in martial arts, counter-terrorism, riot control and kidnapping, for the Games. Each package of vegetables to be eaten at the Olympics will be fitted with an electronic chip to record all information about the carrot, potato, lettuce, spinach or tomato destined for the plate of the athletes. Among other details, the chip will record the farm where the cabbage or the bean was grown and the date

it was picked. Cooks will no doubt be undergoing special training - just as taxi drivers and elderly neighbourhood street committee members are having to learn English to be ready to help visitors for the Games. The challenge for the cooks will be to provide Western meals. Zhen Xiaozhen, of the medical team of the Beijing Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, told a meeting on Olympic food hygiene that most of the dishes on offer to the athletes would be Western cuisine with a complementary smattering of Chinese dishes. These will include such traditional Beijing favourites as pea flour cakes or "donkey rolls" - a snack of sweet rolls of rice flour paste filled with crushed red beans and covered in a brownish soy bean powder. Off the menu, however, will be such local delicacies as tripe and chitterlings, although officials admit that these will not be to the taste of most foreign guests. Health inspectors will begin

training in management and inspection techniques for Western food from this month.Peter H

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