Athletes Fear Chinese Food Will Spoil Olympic Run

July 21, 2008— -- President Bush today welcomed members of the U.S. Olympic team to the White House and hosted a dinner in honor of Team USA with a peculiar menu: pea soup with duck pastrami and crispy black sea bass.

Odd as it may seem, it's not what the president is serving that has received international attention, but, rather, what Olympic athletes eat once they arrive in China.

As if the dangerously dirty Beijing air isn't enough to worry about, U.S. Olympians are heading to China with dinner on their minds.

"I'm definitely concerned about any form of contaminated meat or anything like that," said Jessie Smith, a member of the U.S. water polo team.

Athletes like Smith are concerned with more than an upset stomach. Antibiotics and growth stimulants, or steroids, are common in Chinese food production, which is poorly regulated.

Athletes fear a delicious dish of Chinese food could produce a positive doping test and, in turn, ruin their Olympic run.

"If there is a possibility of us getting tested positive for something through eating, I'm not going to take that chance," said Tony Azevado, water polo team captain. "I don't think anyone on our team will."

In response to concerns voiced by athletes, the Chinese have cracked down on food production, establishing specific Olympic food producers who are under strict regulation.

Li Wen Xiang, deputy general manager of Beijing Peng Chen Food, which controls 40 percent of the Chinese food market, gave ABC News a rare tour of an organic farm north of Beijing. On the farm, 65 tons of athlete-approved fruits and vegetables are being grown under tight security.

Security provisions include a computerized tracking system that details the life history of each carrot and apple, tracking its path from the farm to the athlete's plate.

"Through this tracking code, we can see the entire production process of these tomatoes, from where they were grown, who grew them, to what kinds of fertilizers were used on these tomatoes, and any other manufacturing details," said Ling Yuan, general manager of Beijing Tian Agriculture Development Corp. Ltd.

The company has also taken significant measures to raise the quality of manufacturing to European standards. They have invested more than $29 million to revamp their plants.

"We need to ensure their safety," Yuan said. "We can guarantee the quality of our products."

They're not just practicing better and safer farming techniques, but better public relations -- a key ingredient the Chinese have been slow to embrace. The new approach to food comes in the wake of a slew of embarrassingly unsafe toy and pet food recalls.

Yuan says the Olympics won't be a repeat of prior production failures. The Olympic pork producing facility, for instance, where pigs are painstakingly tagged and tracked from the time they leave the farm, is done in hopes of scrubbing China's tainted reputation.

"We control the quality of our starting product, the meat," Yuan said. "We regulate the animals' diets and the types of ground they are raised on to ensure a similar quality of meat all around."

Food manufacturing executives in Beijing are working to restore the world's trust in China.

"Hopefully, you can show the American public that Chinese products are safe," Yuan told ABC News' Neal Karlinsky.

From air pollution to traffic regulations, and now, the threat of "doping" from home grown ingredients, the Chinese are tending to every detail in the hopes of Olympic success on and off the field.