China will now be tracking its vegetables.

In an attempt to ensure food safety during the 2008 Olympics, Beijing is to give every cabbage, carrot and pea pod its own identity number and file.

If there is a "safety incident" the vegetable's file can be immediately checked and its origins traced. In other reports personnel are said to be at computers tracking each vegetable's path from farm to plate.

"Safety incidents" was a likely reference to pesticide or pollutants in the soil.

The environmental group Greenpeace has found banned pesticides and excessive levels of other chemicals in vegetables supplied from China.

"After going through inspections at the distribution center, standard and qualified vegetables can enter Olympic kitchens".

The city will need more than 5,000 tons of vegetables during the Olympics, mostly from Beijing and the northern Chinese provinces of Hebei and Shandong.

However, the report made no mention of fruits.