Wary U.S. Olympians Will Bring Food to China

When a caterer working for the United States 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 Frank Puleo, a caterer from Staten Island who has traveled 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. 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 U.S.O.C. 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.

In the past two years, the U.S.O.C. has tried to figure out how to avoid such dangers at the Olympics. It has made arrangements with sponsors like Kellogg’s and Tyson Foods, which will ship 25,000 pounds 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.

The bulk of that food will be served at the U.S.O.C.’s training center at Beijing Normal University, about 20 minutes from the Olympic Green, where for the first time United States athletes will have access to their own facility providing three meals a day. The dishes served will be compliant with the U.S.O.C.’s overhauled diet plan, placing a greater emphasis on nutrition, which officials hope will boost athletes’ performance.

The diet plan is already in place for the athletes residing at each of the three United States training centers — here and in Chula Vista, Calif., and Lake Placid, N.Y. And the organization is urging all United States athletes to be aware of what they ingest. Under the World Anti-Doping Agency’s drug-testing code, athletes are responsible for whatever is in their bodies, regardless of the source.

Much of the dietary strategy falls to Jacque Hamilton, the executive chef of the U.S.O.C. She has consulted with dietitians and sous chefs over the past year and a half to modify more than 1,500 recipes and prepare to serve about 700 meals a day at the U.S.O.C.’s training center in Beijing. Many countries do not have the resources for a training center in Beijing, but those that do may choose to serve their own food as well.

Ms. Hamilton has lowered sodium, decreased fats and eliminated trans fats — even from rich dishes like macaroni and cheese and rice pudding — while preserving the flavor. Most recipes must pass a taste test at the Hamilton household before she lets the athletes sample them, and on a recent afternoon at the Olympic Training Center here, Ms. Hamilton unveiled moo shu pork wraps, mango rice balls and a seaweed and soba noodle salad, hoping to gain approval for inclusion on the Beijing menu.

In front of each dish sat a placard informing athletes of vital nutritional information like serving size, calorie content and grams of fats and carbohydrates.

In a way, Ms. Hamilton is a natural fit for this mission; she is a 54-year-old mother of two who says she has never fed her family white bread or canned meats or vegetables. She recently recounted how her son, Jeremy, 12 years old at the time, came home one day and asked why she had been abusing him for so long.

“I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ ” Ms. Hamilton said, laughing. “And he said, ‘Why did I have to have my first Twinkie at someone else’s house?’ ”

There were no signs of Twinkies in the dining hall at the training center, but that does not necessarily mean athletes would be banished if they ate one. Adam Korzun, a dietitian who will be traveling to Beijing to ensure that every meal follows the nutritional standards, said no foods were forbidden.

“It’s all a matter of how and when you work it into your diet,” he said.

Sometimes, the athletes do not have a choice. Mr. Korzun recounted several times when teams competing in foreign countries were presented with culinary challenges. The triathlon team encountered a dish called “Be Dental Alveoli Quick to Salad Bangkok Hot Paddle Fish,” during a meet in Thailand. And the men’s weight lifting team was served barbecued guinea pig before a competition in Peru.

Myles Porter, who is hoping to earn a spot on the judo team for the Paralympic Games, said he lost about 20 pounds during the Para Pan-American Games in Brazil because he ate mostly pasta.

“You can’t just eat that for two weeks and expect to be at your best,” Mr. Porter said.

To limit those occurrences, Tyson has provided all United States team members with duffel bags containing a hot pot, a power adaptor, recipes and replenishable pouches of chicken that they can take to international qualifying events over the next few months.

In preparation for the Olympics, Tyson will ship beef, chicken and pork to China. When the food arrives, customs agents will review the shipment — the U.S.O.C. has budgeted 10 days to complete this process — before it is delivered to U.S.O.C. representatives and taken to a holding site at Beijing Normal University. The food will remain there for about three weeks until athletes arrive.

“The security is so tight that there is pre-screening before it even gets to me,” said Terri Moreman, the U.S.O.C.’s associate director of food and nutrition services.

The protein from Tyson is one of the few food products that will be shipped from the United States. For more than a year, a delegation that includes Mr. Puleo and Ms. Moreman has traveled periodically to China to explore food-related issues. While there, they meet with potential vendors and importers, locate Western-style kitchen equipment and, in some cases, plan how to procure items that Americans may take for granted.

The U.S.O.C. will send measuring cups because, as Ms. Hamilton noted, the United States does not use the metric system. Kellogg’s has been asked to supply cereals like Frosted Flakes and Mini-Wheats, as well as Nutri-Grain bars, because those products are not readily available in China. Finding molasses, they learned, is next to impossible. Ice? Also a challenge.

“When I told them that we’ll need about 6,000 pounds a day, they think the translation’s wrong,” Mr. Puleo said. “Actually, we’ll need much more than that.”

The details must be completed during the group’s next visit to Beijing, scheduled for March, so Ms. Hamilton can begin planning the menu, but so far they expect to import most of the seafood from Japan and a lot of the fruit from Australia. Even without knowing exactly what she will have, Ms. Hamilton has identified some favorites that have made the cut, like meatloaf and the seaweed and soba noodle salad.

She anticipates arriving in Beijing in mid-July to become accustomed to her new kitchen and to meet the Chinese staff that will be assisting her. By then, many of the woks will have been removed, replaced by mobile ovens and griddles, and a weeklong soft opening will be staged at the end of the month to address any problems. Ms. Moreman said she would have a spreadsheet detailing every athlete’s arrival, the times and locations of competitions and when she could expect which team to eat.

Once athletes are finished competing, they are free — encouraged, even — to sample the local fare. That could mean munching on live sea horses or hard-boiled fertilized duck eggs — though steering clear of adulterated chicken breasts.

“I’ll be out there trying all that stuff, too,” Hamilton said. “I can’t wait.”

美国奥运代表团自带食物前往中国

      当美国奥委会承办食物筹备的Frank Puleo去年前往中国考察时，在一家超市发现一个半块鸡胸肉大得吓人，约有14吋厚，“这块肉足够给一个8口人之家吃了。”Puleo夸张地说。“我们对其进行了测试，发现其中含有大量的胆固醇，我们绝不能把这种食物给运动员吃，因为他们吃了之后，在药检中肯定会呈阳性反应。”

      今年参加北京奥运会的美国代表团将超过600名运动员。美国奥组委发现中国食品问题的严重程度远远不止是含有类固醇的鸡那么简单。最近几年，中国的一些食品被发现含有杀虫剂和其他残留农药，而中国的食品卫生标准比美国的要低，这些问题导致在中国，通过食品患病的可能性大大增加。

      过去两年，美国奥委会为了解决这类由食品引发的危险，与Kellogg、Tyson等食品赞助商展开合作。这些赞助商将在奥运开幕式前两个月，运送包括牛肉、鸡肉与猪肉等2万5千磅的高蛋白瘦肉至中国。同时还将聘雇当地供应商负责其他食物以及烹饪厨具的安全。

      这批食物将送往设在北京师范大学的美国奥运代表团训练中心，这里距离北京奥林匹克公园大概20分钟的路程，这也是美国运动员在国外参赛时，首次全天三餐都不食用当地食物。提供的菜式将与奥委会精心订制的餐饮计划相吻合，这个计划很大程度上强调的是营养，奥委会的官员们希望借此提升运动员的体力。

      这类指定食物目前已在加州、纽约等3个美国奥运训练场地提供给运动员食用，以避免误食任何含有禁药的食品。在国际禁药组织条例中，运动员必须对他们自己的身体负责，但条例是不会去管运动员是如何摄取到这些禁药的。

      美国奥委会执行主厨Jacque Hamilton负责此次所有菜单，她在听取营养学者以及副厨师长的意见后，更改了逾1500份菜单，并将在北京奥运期间，每天在训练中心提供大约700份餐点给运动员。很多国家没有足够的财力在北京建立一个这样的训练中心，但是他们也将会采取类似的措施，只吃自备的食物。

      Jacque Hamilton表示，这份菜单低钠、低脂，且不含反式脂肪，即使是通心面、起司、布丁等高热量食品也是如此。而且每一份餐点都是亲自品尝过，确定无误后，才提供给运动员的。以最近为例，她试过木须肉、荞麦面等东方菜式，希望将这些菜加入到菜单当中。

      每份菜单都会标明关键的营养指数，例如每克食物的卡路里含量、脂肪及碳水化合物含量等，以便运动员得知相关信息。

      有时候，运动员也别无选择。Korzun向我们描述了好几次美国运动队在国外进行比赛时的遭遇。有一次在泰国的铁人三项比赛期间，运动员就碰到了一道很奇怪的菜：沙拉曼谷桨鱼。还有一次在秘鲁举行的男子举重比赛甚至有烤豚鼠。

      即将参加北京奥运会的柔道选手Myles Porter说，在巴西举行的泛美洲奥运会上，因为吃了太多的意大利面，他的体重下降了20磅。“你不可能连续两个星期都吃这类食物，身体还能保持在巅峰状态”，他说。

      为了避免出现这样的情况，Tyson食品公司将通过轮船将牛肉、鸡肉和猪肉运往北京。这些食物将储存在北京师范大学大约三个星期，直到运动员抵达。

      从一年前开始，美国奥组委的相关人员就定期访问中国，协商食品问题。美国奥组委将自带量具，因为在美国是不使用公制的。Kellogg食品公司已要求供应迷你小麦以及营养谷物等，因为这些产品不容易在中国获得。还有糖蜜也没有。冰块？别想了。

      “当我提出每天需要6000磅的冰块时，中国人觉得是翻译出现了问题，”Puleo说，“实际上，我们需要的只会比这更多。”

      所有的细节必须在下次访问北京时得到解决。而Hamilton预计将于7月中旬抵达北京，届时她会视察设在北京大学的美国代表队训练中心的厨房，除了与当地聘请的中国厨师助手会面以外，还会将原有厨具换成美国运送过去的新厨具代替，包括微波炉、烤箱等等。

      当然，一旦运动员完成了比赛，他们就自由了，可以尽情品尝当地美食－－除了掺假的鸡胸肉。

      “我也会出去大吃一顿，”Hamilton说，“我已经迫不及待了。”