The Beijing Olympics' organizing committee opened its Forum on Food and Drink Provision last Friday, and an official told attendees that bidding to provide food services at the Games would be open to all, according to Chinanews.com on November 28.

"The most important thing we care about is the capacity of the enterprise," said Xiang Ping, under secretary of Games Services Department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).

"We might accept two providers," she added, "We want to provide an equal opportunity for companies from all over the world."

Xiang said that although many Chinese catering companies have provided food and drink at the Asian Games and National Games, none had undertaken a task as significant as servicing the Olympics before.

She said there will be at least 100,000 people staying in the Olympic Games Village, and the Olympic Media Village will be able to accommodate 6,000 others.

This means caterers would need to be able to provide a continuous and reliable 24-hour service for the Olympics for around 30 days, she said, followed by another 30 days' coverage for the Paralympic Games.

Due to differing dietary habits, the Games Services Department said traditional Chinese and western food would be provided together, with western-style food making up about 70 percent of menus.

Two days prior to the food provision forum, the Summit of Food Safety Environment for the Beijing Olympics was also held, according to the BOCOG's website, to help provide better technical support during the Games.

The forum covered issues including international and national food safety regulations, food supply and food inspection.

The BOCOG said it is currently drawing up food safety regulations for the event.

(China.org.cn by Wang Ke November 30, 2005)