FoodBozo.com

Food at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler will be provided by Sodexo and McDonald’s. There will be fresh food stations at various points in the Athletes’ Village and so called ”food nannies” will keep dishes at a constant, safe temperature in order to prevent food borne illness.

At the 2008 games in Beijing, the Americans had meat flown in from the U.S. in order to stop just that. However, somewhere between the U.S. and preparation in China, the food developed pathogens and made quite a few of the athletes very ill. Food borne illness is caused when food sits in the danger zone at an improper temperature.

The two main elements of food poisoning are moisture content and temperature. Therefore if one is cooking a food whose moisture content is high (think potatoes, pasta, rice.) and it is left to stand at room temperature or at a temperature that is not sufficiently high to kill bacteria, one will have a wretched and dangerous case of food borne illness on one’s hands.

The remote monitoring system planned for use at the 2010 Olympics was first put to practical use by NASA According to itbusiness.ca:

The system employs more than a hundred “BlackBerry-sized” temperature sensors placed at “strategic control points.”

The sensors report via radio signals every 15 minutes to tablet PC-sized handheld receiver units. Culled data is sent securely to a computer where the information can be analyzed at a glance to help uncover health standard violations, faulty equipment, or bad food handling practices. itbusiness.ca: source

Fueling elite Olympic bodies requires high caloric intake (between 3-5000 calories a day) of high quality food with a heavy emphasis on fruits, vegetables, whole grains and protein.

Although McDonald’s presence is questioned by some, it’s doubtful that their two week stint is going to alter an athlete’s performance or cause them to radically change their eating habits. The threat of food borne illness is much more dangerous that the odd Egg McMuffin.