How the London Olympics Will Revolutionize Food

[marmar]

from Civil Eats:



How the London Olympics Will Revolutionize Food

July 27th, 2012
By Katrina Heron


Olympic training regimens are the stuff of legend, but here’s one you probably haven’t heard of: spend 18 hours a day for five years researching every fresh, healthy, comestible, and delicious recipe the host nation can muster—and then be ready to serve them all at lightning speed.

It’s a new sport, launched by an intrepid group of food planners charged with feeding the athletes—and everyone else—at the London-based Games of the XXX Olympiad, which kick off officially today. Over a total of 27 days, 14 million meals will be consumed at 44 venues in and around the city. The athletes alone will pack away 1.2 million of them—65,000 on the busiest day.

The food for what has been described as the largest peacetime catering operation in the world is measured in tonnes (2,200 pounds), as in: a staggering 330 tonnes of fruits and “veg”; 100 tonnes of meat; 21 tonnes of cheese. But that’s the warm-up. If a “Food Vision” meticulously plotted under the auspices of the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) succeeds, it will lead the way to a much bigger prize: a new standard for the procurement and consumption of healthy, regionally sourced, environmentally sustainable food in London and beyond.

Beating the nearest rival in the Olympic competition was a snap. At the Beijing Summer Games in 2008, it was a toss-up which was worse, the quality of the food or the fact that it kept running out. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://civileats.com/2012/07/27/how-the-london-olympics-will-revolutionize-food/

[xchrom]

1. du rec. nt

[RandiFan1290]

2. The athletes won't be eating McDonalds?

[midnight]

3. It says McDonalds will be reading itself to meet these health standards. I wonder what they will be?

[JNelson6563]

4. Great article.

It seems to me that a few folks are brilliantly using the Olympic games as the opportunity they have been waiting for to push for healthy change in the food situation in the UK.

I think it's really awesome what they are doing. Thanks for posting the article, enjoyed reading the whole thing.

Julie