Team GB forced to eat packed lunches after complaints of ‘inadequate’ food at Olympic village

Supply issues have seen a growing number of athletes complain about the catering and Team GB have flown in their own chef to counter the problem

Team GB are flying in a chef to help prepare meals for their athletes at a performance lodge in Clichy following underwhelming servings and rationing of high-protein foods inside the Olympic village.

Catering organisers have blamed supply problems for the low-standard of the food with Sodexo Live, the company in charge of catering, saying it has increased the daily order of several of the most popular items after complaints on the eve of the Games.

Emmanuel Macron is served food in the Paris Olympic village (EPA)

A spokesman told French media outlet L’Equipe that they are “taking the feedback very seriously” and “are working to increase our supplies to the restaurants in the athletes’ village”. Eggs, chicken and certain carbohydrates are in such short supply they have been unable to meet the demands of the Olympians.

British athletes have even started bringing packed lunches back to the village in order to ensure a more nutritious evening meal.

Andy Anson, the British Olympic Association’s chief executive, spoke to The Times claiming the food in the village ‘is not adequate’ and that the issues need to be resolved as soon as possible.

IOC President Thomas Bach tries food from a salad bar while touring the Olympic village (AP)

He said: “There are not enough of certain foods: eggs, chicken, certain carbohydrates, and then there is the quality of the food, with raw meat being served to athletes. They have got to improve it over the next couple of days dramatically.

“Our athletes have decided they would rather go and eat in our performance lodge in Clichy, so we are having to get another chef to come over as the demand is far exceeding what we thought it would be.

“The athletes are not going there just to eat their lunch, they are packing meals for their dinner as they don’t want to go into the athlete restaurant to eat. So we are trying to make sure our athletes have an advantage by having more food. It is the biggest issue at the moment.”

About 40,000 meals are prepared in the athletes’ village each day and the main restaurant has 3,300 seats.