Poor hygiene warning for Athens Olympics

Greece’s food safety watchdog has found 70% of food outlets surveyed this year have broken safety and hygiene rules and will fine or shut down hundreds of them, weeks before the Athens Olympic Games.

The hotels, restaurants and food stores in five Olympic cities across Greece came up short in tests ranging from food quality to storage facilities.

“Since the beginning of the year, we have controlled around 3,200 food-related businesses, like restaurants, canteens and supermarkets... in total, around 70 percent showed omissions, shortcomings or serious problems of spoilt food that is dangerous to public health,” a spokesman said.