China’s Chicken Pumping Iron?
April 6th, 2008
Submitted By: Glenn Hughes
The US Olympics team will be bringing its own food to the games this year. One of the concerns for athletes is that chicken, as well as other foods in China, contain such high levels of steroids that athletes could potentially test positive.
Despite China’s assurance that their food is safe, the US Olympic Committee or USOC has arranged with several US companies to ship 25,000 pounds of food to China for their athletes. This move was spurred by concerns of pesticides, veterinary drugs, steroids and other compounds that could potentially end up in the final food product. One of the most recent concerns came from dumplings shipped to Japan where people complained that pesticides made their way into the food poisoning at least 10 people.
China responds by showing regrets that the US team will not be dining with the other athletes in a communal environment. Authorities insist that food in Beijing has been properly monitored and that steroids such as clenbuterol have been banned in food production. One article even states that mice will be used as test subjects to ensure the safety of the food being served to the athletes.
The United States team will have to comply with all of the import standards that apply to bringing food into China and all relevant regulations. Although this issue has not been completely resolved, China has stated that it will not allow any outside food to be brought into Olympic Village.
Olympians Banned from Bringing Food into Village
Dr. Carr posted on Cultural Knuckleheads, does the USOC fit this description? We are guests in China, rejecting food being offered to the Olympians. China has offered that their food is safe and has put procedures in place to ensure that nothing is tainted. Pasture to plate monitoring for food in Beijing has been taking place over the past months using barcodes and other tracking methods to make sure food does not get tainted. Thus far we are the only Olympic team to be publicized as doing such. Being so closely tied with China, is it wise for a country to make such a move?
Entry Filed under: Pre-Departure, Beijing, China
12 Comments Add your own
1. Sin-Yaw Wang | April 7th, 2008 at 3:18 am
Who’s advising the US team?
1. If the statement is true, then all other athletes will be “contaminated” with steroids and only the US team will not. Hmm.. Think about it.
2. Steroids are hormones. If chicken were injected with hormones for growth, how much will those injection will be detected after being metabolized twice (first by chicken, then by the person)?
3. By China laws, no raw meats can be brought through custom. The US team will then consume either processed meat or no meat. Guess that will really enhance the performance.
4. Uh… They also need to drink, breathe, tour, and socialize with other people. Right?
5. Last I checked, USA recalled lots of meat in California. US beef is still banned from entering Japan. Maybe US team should not consume unsafe food from the US?
It is rare to see such public display of stupidity.
2. Chris Carr | April 7th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Sin-Yaw, you raise the very same questions that when through my mind as I have followed this item in the press. The USOC seems to be missing one of the very reasons said games are held in the first place — to get out, meet and mingle with people from other cultures, and learn to think about things from a different perspective, etc.
3. Angie Q. Dip | April 7th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
This was a very interesting topic and a good example of what NOT TO DO in China. Sin-Yaw Wang’s comments provided some good points that the USOC should really consider. As Dr. Carr mentioned, one of the reasons of the Olympics being held in China is for the athletes and others involved to gain knowledge and experience of other cultures. Food is an essential part in learning more about one’s culture, and if the USOC brings their own food to the Olympics, not only are the Americans not completely absorbing the experience, but may also be seen as arrogant. For those of us who will be going to China and India in just a little more than two months, how do you think the Chinese and Indian people who work at the factories that we would be visiting would feel if we were to bring our own food and not eat the food they serve us? In addition, how do you think they would feel if we told them we didn’t think their food was safe for us to eat? If we were put in their position, I’m sure we wouldn’t be too happy, either.
I tried to search for some updated articles on this issue, but was unable to find any. However, I did come across this website, which I am not sure if it is reliable or not, but the USOC supposedly responded with a comment on this issue, saying that they did not think the food China will be providing is unsafe, but that the US athletes would be eating a majority of their meals at the Athletes Village, and that the food they will be bringing is more for the 400+ personnel they will have and the food was also only an alternative option for the athletes. Either way, I think the US should not be bringing their own food to China. Whether it is for the athletes or more for the personnel, it still does not provide a good image for the US as a whole. We would come across as arrogant and rude, and since we will only be guests in China, we should be polite and follow/respect their culture.
4. Chris Carr | April 7th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Yes. Good analogy, Justine.
How many times have you been invited over to someone’s house for dinner and brought your OWN food to eat instead of what your host is making and serving? Can you imagine that? I can’t think of one person I know with decent manners who has done or would do this. This is exactly the kind of geopolitical behavior and decision making that makes others in the world dislike us because they get the impression that we think and believe that our pooh don’t stink. The USOC can explain this away all they want, but this decision, when you picture it as an exhibit at trial that is blown up on a big power point frame to study and debate, would be hard to explain and get others in the world to understand and accept.
5. Simeon Trieu | April 7th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
That’s a slap in the face. I understand their concern, as there may be some deep rooted mistrust of the Chinese food products. After all, if our toys shipped from China are laced with lead, then what must the food from China be like? If Sin-Yaw Wang is right about only processed meat being shipped, then the shipped meat won’t be tasty or healthy. Not only that, but the USOC is destroying the healthy mingling with other athletes in the Olympic village. I’m sure the athletes have a choice to eat the shipped food by the USOC or the provided food by the Chinese. Either way, this is was a dispirited move by the USOC. It does not make the US look good. The world still misunderstands China. Why not at least go there and see the country for yourself before making preconceived judgments like the USOC?
6. Simeon Trieu | April 7th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Dr. Carr: You mean Angie?
7. Chris Carr | April 7th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Yes. Meant Angie. Bad, aging eyes and mind …
8. Dena Malloy | April 9th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
I am frankly surprised that the Olympic athletes eat food supplied by the host country at all. Most elite athletes have an extremely strict regimen for what kind of food they consume. I’m sure at the very least, our Olympic team could have asked to bring in some additional food to ensure the athletes are eating what their diet requires. I am very careful about what kind of food I put in my body and I am not even remotely close to being an Olympian. Unfortunately, accusing the host country of basically planning to poison you would extremely offensive to anyone. I believe that someone with some knowledge of Chinese culture should have been hired to smooth out this situation gone awry.
9. Thalia van Tonder | April 14th, 2008 at 8:41 am
I also want to say that I think the US team should bring their own food. I have lived in China for almost a year. I do believe the food has all kinds of hormones it it. I have never been a fussy eater. I love meat and all kinds of food. Since I moved to China my hair has grown at rapid speed. It might be the food.
I don’t think China and the people who live here know what they put into their bodies.
10. Mike Lohman | April 20th, 2008 at 4:32 am
I would like to point out that the Olympic commitee when it used to meet in every country of the World, to choose the next country for holding the Games had its own Food and drink checked prior to these meetings and in addition did not allow mobile phones and had all incoming wavelengths banned to ensure they had free thought.
As legally given to us in the Human Rights Act article 13
I would suggest then that at the moment every body seems to be breaking the Rules - the Olympic Comittee, America,China,Russia,UK,Australia should come clean and say the real reason for these food checks
Steroids are old chemistry its now 2008 and in today its DNA thought molecules put into the air, food and drink and not forgetting gene doping of a persons or a group’s DNA
11. Matthew Sprecher | April 22nd, 2008 at 4:47 pm
At first when I read this article I was against the US athletes bringing their food over, and I still have that feeling to an extent, but after reading Thalia’s comment I am having second thoughts. Regardless, I think we should be showing respect to the country hosting the games by eating the food they provide. Another issue for us is the risk of getting all that food over seas. What happens if the meat we send over goes bad somehow? Are we going to beg the Chinese to feed us because we screwed up with our own idea? That would surely make us look like a responsible country.
I’m sure that nothing will go wrong with us bringing our own food over to China, but it wouldnt surprise me if something bad went wrong. I think it simply boils down to respect. We always here in business to be respectful to other people’s customs world wide, and I think this issue borders on being extremely disrespectful.
12. Thalia | September 20th, 2008 at 4:25 am
China had yet another food scare recently. I quote:
“BEIJING - China’s tainted product crisis has extended to liquid milk, the nation’s watchdog agency said Friday, as Starbucks dumped a supplier in China.
The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said milk sold in liquid form by three leading Chinese dairies is contaminated with melamine, the industrial chemical that as been linked to the deaths of four infants and illnesses in 6,200 others.”
I guess I am really switching to soy milk from now on.
The point is, you just don’t know what is in the food here.
I still live in Shanghai, I still eat and drink from all restaurants. There is nothing I can do.
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