Behind the scenes at the Olympics, a London food team has been plotting to serve 14 million fresh, local, and healthy meals to athletes and audiences, The Daily Beast reports. But there's much more to this story than sustenance and logistics: The team hopes to keep its ambitious “Food Vision” going once the Games are over.

That vision has entailed five years of “researching every fresh, healthy, comestible, and delicious recipe the host nation can muster,” the article said, and then being ready to serve them all at lightning speed.

It seems that the food at the Beijing Summer Games in 2008 was something of a joke.  From The Daily Beast:

 “We were very keen not to repeat the culinary disaster of Beijing,” says Rosie Boycott, chair of Mayor Boris Johnson’s London Food directive, which is part of a tightly coordinated network harnessing Olympian muscle for the long-term future of the city’s and, it is hoped, the nation’s, food system. “But that was just the beginning. Back in 2007 the organizers determined that this was an unprecedented opportunity to look at our diets and our health, at our catering industry, at the state of our farms, and to commit to a long-term plan for good food and environmental stewardship.”

The new rules of the Games dictate that much of the food served—including but not limited to fruits, vegetables, milk, cheeses, and meats—will be sourced in the U.K.; animal products will meet or exceed a “Red Tractor” benchmark (an independent food seal of approval launched by Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2000); fish will be demonstrably sustainable; cage-free hens will provide the eggs; milk and chicken will be organic; and drinking water will be free.

Local and regional foods are a big part of the plan. But another interesting wrinkle has been the involvement of Olympic sponsors such as “worldwide partner” McDonalds.

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