Socio-technical innovations for total food chain safety during the 2008 Beijing Olympics and Paralympics and beyond

The Beijing Olympic Committee adopted a series of socio-technical innovations and a unified Good Nutrition Practice (GNP) to protect the total food chain supply and ensure food safety for athletes and coaches during the Games. The success of these measures was evidenced by the total absence of food safety breaches and incidents during the Games. In contrast, the tragedy that befell infants poisoned by melamine-contaminated formula in China shortly thereafter underscores the need for unassailable food safety measures beyond the Beijing area and the Olympic time period. The innovations enacted to protect Olympic Games participants could benefit the country of China as a whole, as well as other developing countries.