( em in place if a food security issue w...)Beijing Says Food Safe for Olympic Athletes, Tourists,Health

em in place, if a food security issue were to arise, we would be able to alert producers and distributors within 30 minutes and pull any suspect product from the shelves," said Tang Yunhua, in charge of logistics at the administration.

A key part of China's food safety problem lies in the structure of the industry, which is dominated by small firms, many of which have no government licences.

However, only top-flight suppliers will be involved in the Olympic catering operation, according to Tang.

"Chinese firms who will supply produce for the Games all have a fairly high level in terms of quality, and their goods meet international standards," Tang said.

The government is also trying to extend tighter food security beyond the Olympic Games to the rest of the capital of 15 million people.

The central government also announced last month announced that it would update its food safety standards, as some of them were out of date.

The government is also relying on ordinary Beijingers. A government hot line opened in 1999 for consumer complaints has proved to be a useful weapon.

"Food-safety complaints were the highest proportion of complaints in 2006, about 25 percent of the total," said Han Miao, deputy director of the complaint centre.

However the official assurances fall far short of satisfying Zhou Qin, a Beijing dissident and author of a 2006 book that revealed serious food safety problems in China.

"During the Olympics, it will be difficult to keep Beijing's food safe," he told AFP.

"They might be able to provide safe food for the athletes, but is is uncertain whether they can do it for the rest of us."

As well as the vast number of suppliers who escape government monitoring, there is a structural issue within the government because responsibility for food safety is spread across several departments, he said.
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