Bring your own chef: U.S. strategy for Beijing Olympic Games

By Ben Shpigel Published: February 10, 2008

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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado: The U.S. Olympic Committee has spent the past two years trying to figure out how to handle food-related issues like steroid-tainted chicken at the 2008 Olympics.

When an American caterer working for the U.S. Olympic Committee went to a supermarket in China last year, he encountered a piece of chicken - half of a breast - that measured 14 inches. "Enough to feed a family of eight," said the caterer, Frank Puleo, who has traveled from New York to China to handle food-related issues.

"We had it tested and it was so full of steroids that we never could have given it to athletes," Puleo said of the chicken meat that measured about 35 centimeters. "They all would have tested positive."

In preparing to take a delegation of more than 600 athletes to the Summer Games in Beijing this year, the USOC faces food issues beyond steroid-laced chicken. In recent years, some foods in China have been found to be tainted with insecticides and illegal veterinary drugs, and the standards applied to meat there are lower than those in the United States, raising fears of food-borne illnesses.

The USOC has spent the past two years trying to figure out how to avoid such dangers at the Games. It has made arrangements with sponsors like Kellogg's and Tyson Foods, which will ship 25,000 pounds, or 9,000 kilograms, of lean protein to China about two months before the opening ceremony, but will hire local vendors and importers to secure other foods and cooking equipment at the Games.