Yeah Right - That'll work.
Do we really expect some lackey standing around the Olympic kitchen to maintain a log verifying the tracking number attached to each individual vegetable? We all know how hard it is to convince a computer operator fill out a check list much less a Chef or his assistant. I can hear the news feed now. "Olympic athleets lacking vital nutrition because vegetables cannot be verified quickly enough to feed the hungry Olympiads. Teams urged to eat at McDonald's until the next meal can be properly registered."
Quote:
BEIJING (Reuters) - As if China didn't have its hands full keeping tabs on its 1.3 billion people, the country will now begin tracking its vegetables.
In an attempt to ensure food safety during the 2008 Olympics, Beijing is to give every cabbage, carrot and pea pod its own identity number and file, the Beijing News reported on Wednesday.
If there is a "safety incident" the vegetable's file can be immediately checked and its origins traced, the newspaper said, in a report accompanied by graphics showing personnel at computers tracking each vegetable's path from farm to plate.
"Safety incidents" was a likely reference to pesticide or pollutants in the soil. The environment group Greenpeace has found banned pesticides and excessive levels of other chemicals in vegetables supplied from China.
"After going through inspections at the distribution center, standard and qualified vegetables can enter Olympic kitchens," the Beijing News report said.
The city will need more than 5,000 tonnes of vegetables during the Olympics, mostly from Beijing and the northern Chinese provinces of Hebei and Shandong.
The report made no mention of fruit.
Source: http://today.reuters.com/news/newsAr...archived=False
