Mice star as Olympic food tasters [BBC newslink]

White mice are to take part in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing - their task to protect international athletes from food poisoning.

The mice will be fed milk, alcohol, salad, rice, oil and seasonings, the city's health inspectors said.

Mice show adverse reactions within 17 hours, while laboratory tests take much longer, they said.

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All the food and ingredients to be prepared in Olympic kitchens will fed to the mice a day before they are served to athletes, state news agency Xinhua quoted Zhao Xinsheng of the Beijing Municipal Health Inspection Bureau as saying.

Infected food can then be traced and destroyed in time.

For more than two years Margot Woelk had to taste Hitler's food to ensure it was not poisoned.
She feasted on fresh fruit and vegetables including asparagus, peppers and peas, while her fellow Germans were being rationed.
...
Mrs Woelk told the Times: ''Of course I was afraid. If it [the food] had been poisoned I would not be here today. We were forced to eat it, we had no choice.
'Between 11 and 12 o'clock, we had to taste the food, and only after all 15 of us had tried it was it was driven to the headquarters by the SS.
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There was always an hour's delay before Hitler tucked into his meal so that any effects of the food on the women could be seen.
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