Beijing seeks to reassure on food safety

YANQING, China (Reuters) - Nestled beneath verdant mountains two hours drive north of Beijing, surrounded by swaying trees and fields of maize, lies a farm that this year's Olympic host city hopes will be key to assuaging food safety worries.

Beijing is going to great lengths to ensure a perfect Games, including growing vegetables at special farms and breeding "Olympic pork" after food quality issues gained international attention last year following a series of scandals.

Food for the athletes is being provided by specially certified Chinese enterprises, many just outside Beijing, augmented by imports supplied by U.S. meat producer Tyson Foods Inc, among others.

On Wednesday, reporters were given a rare glimpse of one of those farms on a carefully choreographed, government-organized trip to Yanqing county, a rural part of Beijing close to the Great Wall, to try and set minds at ease.

According to Zhang Huichen, the farm's general manager, it is Yanqing's location that makes it ideal for providing the best quality food for athletes.

Not only is the farm totally organic, it is far enough away from Beijing to be unaffected by the city's notorious pollution, he told reporters.

"Other places have a much higher temperature than here, which really suits the growing of vegetables. Plus there's no pollution. Look at the air," Zhang said, gesturing to a cloudy but haze-free sky. "Our water comes from deep underground too."

The farm grows peppers, tomatoes, kale and a whole selection of herbs not usually used in Chinese cooking such as rosemary, oregano and basil, which are then shipped to "core Olympic areas" -- including the Olympic village where athletes stay.

"You can rest easy, the food for the Olympics will be totally safe," Zhang said, standing sweating in a plastic-covered warehouse growing orange peppers.

Despite Zhang's confidence and numerous assurances from officials that they are doing everything possible to ensure Olympic food safety, the issue has caused a lot of concern.

Meat supplies in particular have come under scrutiny over fears that antibiotics and growth stimulants commonly used by breeders to boost yields could cause positive doping tests.

China bans drugs such as clenbuterol, a steroid that boosts animal muscle mass, in feed, although experts say it is still commonly used by Chinese producers.

Officials say they have developed an extensive monitoring and supervision system over the entire supply chain feeding Beijing, from breeders to slaughterhouses to distribution trucks, to ensure that food for the Games is up to par.

"There are no chemical residues in any Beijing-produced vegetables," Tao Zhiqiang, who is in charge of overseeing vegetable safety for the city, told reporters. "Production bases are providing safe products for the Olympics."

Honduran swimmer Javier Hernandez said he was not worried about the food in the Olympic Village, but added he was more wary of stepping outside the confines of the camp.

"The food's just like at home," he told Reuters. "My coach says I should stay here and eat in the village, because I have heard they are very strict about it. Who knows what's out there?"

(Additional reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by David Fox)