BEIJING - China's food safety supervisors on Thursday reiterated their confidence in supplies for next month's Beijing Olympic Games, saying athletes can rely on catering services at the Olympic village.

A laboratory technician performs a testing and analysis process at the Beijing Olympic food safety monitoring center in Beijing July 11, 2008. [Agencies]

China is "capable and confident" of ensuring the absolute safety of food supplied to the Games, said Tang Yunhua, a Beijing Food Safety Administration official.

Related readings:  Consumer goods: 24-hour vigil to ensure safe Games' food  24-hour vigil to ensure safe Games' food  Foreigners at Olympic Village feel good with weather, food  FM: China willing to enhance food safety cooperation

She said the capital's food quality control department had sent inspectors to monitor the entire process of Olympic food supply, from production to the table, making sure nothing would go wrong.

"We shoulder this responsibility for the perfect safety of Olympic food. We are capable and confident of it," she told a press conference.

She said the city government had enormously improved its monitoring and supervision systems since 2005 by implementing a special action plan for the safety of Olympic food, as well as local laws concerning food safety.

Under the system, inspectors were sent to monitor the entire supply chain, including certified farm producers, food processing factories, storage and transport businesses, Tang said.

Supervisory agents had even closely monitored the use of animal feed and pesticides in order to prevent any possible health risk, she said.

Tang brushed off the worries of some countries that possible food safety problems, such as residual drugs in animal feed, could jeopardize the performance of their athletes.

"China has adopted strict national standards for food safety, which are largely in line with the international CAC (Codex Alimentarius Commission) standards," Tang said.