Eat-out ban for Olympic athletes reflects safety reality (2)

According to Fan Zhihong, a food safety expert at the China Agriculture University, the so-called lean meat powder is used in many countries, including the US.

However, Chinese authorities found it impossible to monitor the dose of the additives used at the country's numerous small farms, and subsequently banned its use in 2002.

However, its use never actually ended despite numerous crackdowns, as loopholes in the production and supervision chain allowed farmers to use the additive and produce larger animals, which in turn garnered them and meat processors larger profits, according to previous media reports.

The country's largest meat processor, Shuanghui Group, was found to have produced and sold pork tainted with clenbuterol in March 2011, with a total of 158 pigs from nine farms in Henan Province having been contaminated, according to the Henan-based Dahe Daily.

In February 2009, 70 people were hospitalized in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, with stomach pains and diarrhea after eating tainted pig organs sold at a local market.

"Highly improbable event"

Despite a public outcry, food safety experts and industry insiders said that the public concern, though understandable, is somehow redundant, and consumers should enjoy meat products without worry.

"The sport administration's measures are aimed at eliminating all highly improbable events that might lead to an athlete's failure to pass a drug test. It does not necessarily mean that all food products on the market are unsafe," Fan said.

"In the Shuanghui case, none of the others who consumed the pork were negatively affected, as the dose, though banned by the State, was at a manageable and non-harmful level," said Fan.

A feed manufacturer, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Global Times that big farms in northeastern China seldom feed the animals with the powder, while only a few small farm owners do so to increase profits.

"They learned a lesson from the Shuanghui Group incident last year," he said.

However, expert assurances do not seem to dissuade public anxiety.

"The lean meat powder, the gutter oil, the poisonous milk powder and so on. What is happening in our country? I really hope more can be done to protect Chinese consumers," a Web user commented.