The authorities are doing their utmost to ensure food safety during the Beijing Olympics, a senior quality supervision official said yesterday.

All supplies to athletes, trainers and coaches will be scrutinized in a tracking system from the farm to the dining table, said Wei Chuanzhong, deputy head of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China (AQSIQ).

Wei made the remarks to 150 journalists from more than 60 domestic and foreign media organizations yesterday in Beijing.

The journalists, including 114 from overseas, visited AQSIQ headquarters and two local food producers which are potential suppliers for the Games.

The tracking system, launched in August, monitors food production, processing and delivery as well as hygiene conditions.

Each food product carries a barcode containing information of producer, distributor and retailer.

So far, 28,420 food producers have joined the system, with 454 million pieces of products carrying the barcode sold in the market.

In Beijing, most major food manufacturing companies have been put under the system.

At yesterday's briefing, Wei also revealed that the AQSIQ and Customs authorities had conducted anti-biochemical terrorism drills to ensure quality of food imports.

"The drills aim to improve our capacity to deal with nuclear and radiation-related chemical terrorism," said Wei.

(China Daily via china.org.cn November 13, 2007)