Olympic food service-Athletes’ Village-food nannies to keep athletes safe
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.
