Poor, unappetizing meals at the Paris 2024 Olympic Village have caused much controversy in recent days.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics, the organizing committee is committed to an environmentally friendly menu. Accordingly, the kitchen department will focus on local, seasonal and plant-based foods to reduce carbon emissions compared to the previous Olympics.

The Paris 2024 Olympic Food Vision document explains that the aim of serving 13 million meals during the Games to athletes is to use seasonal, locally sourced foods with low animal protein content. That is to reduce the carbon footprint of the 2024 Games compared to London 2012 and Rio 2016.

“We are in France, so we want to offer both quality, with more than 500 chef-created recipes, and a real diversity of meals, so that all the athletes in the world can find something they like to eat before competing and those who are staying for a few weeks can enjoy being in France,” Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet said as he gave reporters a tour of the 3,300-seat main dining room of the Olympic Village earlier this month.

Hosts France have taken great care in preparing food for athletes at the 2024 Olympics

What is on the menu for the 2024 Paris Olympics?

Philipp Wurz, head of food for the 2024 Paris Olympics, said enthusiastically: “France will invite the world to its table. The athletes know that they will be well fed here. Our goal is to provide them with high-quality food.”

Meanwhile, executive chef Amadine Chaignot explains: “The dish I will be cooking at the 2024 Olympics is poultry, guinea fowl slowly roasted with a delicious lobster sauce, very rich, along with a ‘poulette’ sauce. It’s a rich, indulgent dish.” Amadine Chaignot is the owner of the Paris restaurant “La Pouliche” and the executive chef at The Rosewood hotel in London.

The Olympic Village will also have a bakery producing traditional French baguettes, croissants and pastries.

The 2024 Olympic website offers a tantalizing introduction to the food at the 2024 Olympics: “Every athlete will find their favourite dishes. In addition, there will be a salad bar with more than 30 options, a grill with meats and side dishes, a cheese area, a pastry area noodles, a hot food buffet, a dessert bar and a variety of fruits”.

The 2024 Olympic homepage also introduces some of the main dishes served to athletes: “For French cuisine, there will be vegetarian beef Bourguignon, Brandade de morue (salted cod and mashed potatoes), Asian dishes with minced pork and Thai basil, in addition to basmati rice, cauliflower and roasted potatoes with turmeric, African and Caribbean dishes including bell peppers, onions, tomatoes and peppers sauteed (Chakchouka), fried shrimp with chermoula sauce”. There are also some dishes called “world cuisine” such as lamb with mint sauce, vegetarian Moussaka.

Hong Kong (China) athlete Stephanie Au shares her menu at the 2024 Olympics

Other signature dishes served include: tandir chicken, croissant with boiled egg, artichoke cream, goat cheese and truffle, smoked salted cod with cassava and vegetarian broth, almado-style bread salad and zaatar sweet potato…

The dining area in the Olympic village is divided into 6 separate stalls serving different culinary styles such as Asian, European, Muslim,… to suit the culture of each country. In addition, some street foods, desserts, drinks are served separately with about 11 side stalls.

Criticized for having few dishes, lacking in nutrients

However, when the sports festival took place, many athletes did not respond to the menu at the Olympics. The main problem was that many athletes complained about the lack of meat and eggs on the menus, along with the lack of carbohydrate-rich foods. It can be said that demand exceeds supply for some foods.

US gymnast Simone Biles expressed her dissatisfaction with the food at the 2024 Olympics. She shared with Le Parisien: “The food in the athletes’ village is not like French cuisine. American cuisine is healthier. French cuisine is supposed to be good, but the food in the athletes’ village is not very good.”

Many athletes complain about less meat at the 2024 Olympics

According to The Times, the chief executive of the British Olympic Association (BOA), Andy Anson, pointed out that: “There are food issues at the 2024 Olympics, such as a lack of eggs, chicken and some carbohydrate-rich foods. Athletes are being served raw meat. Improvements need to be made within the next few days.”

In Brussels, food issues at the 2024 Olympics were discussed as the EU also aims to promote plant-based diets in a similar way to the Farm to Fork strategy, the bloc’s flagship food policy.

Christiane Lambert, president of the EU farmers lobby Copa Cogeca, has criticised the reduction of animal protein in the 2024 Olympic menu: “The people who put together the menu underestimate the need for protein-rich foods, especially of animal origin, which help to repair muscles between competitions and training sessions… the need for carbohydrates is also underestimated.”

According to the Time of India, officials from the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) have revealed that the food shortages at the Olympics appear to be overblown. According to the IOA, there may have been some food shortages in the Olympic village, but they confirmed that no one was hungry and that Indian athletes were receiving vegetarian food there to meet their nutritional needs.

However, the Time of India also wrote: “Olympic officials had previously boasted that around 40,000 meals would be prepared daily in the Olympic village. However, the largest restaurant venue is said to have just 3,300 seats, making food supply issues complicated.”

Meanwhile, the British Olympic delegation has sent chefs from the UK to France to serve their athletes. Previously, British athletes refused to eat at some of the organizers’ restaurants due to food shortages and were served undercooked meat.

The New York Post also said that it would be difficult to create a menu that would please all athletes at the 2024 Olympics: “Preparing for the 2024 Olympics involves a lot of logistics, such as nutritional needs, sustainable sourcing, variety of options, culinary traditions from around the world… The difficulty is that there is no one-size-fits-all diet for Olympic athletes. Some athletes load up on carbohydrates while others prefer a high-protein, low-sugar diet.”

According to Reuters, the Olympic Village served 40,000 meals a day to 15,000 athletes. After many complaints from athletes, the menu for the 2024 Olympics has been improved, especially in terms of quantity.

A representative of the catering company for the 2024 Olympics, Sodexo Live, told Business Insider that the quality and quantity of food in the Olympic Village has improved in recent days: “Certain products, such as eggs and grilled meats, were particularly popular with athletes, so their quantity was increased in agreement with the Paris 2024 organizing committee. Since then, the quantity of products provided has been adjusted to meet all needs.”

“There has been an increase in animal protein, with 700kg of eggs and 1 tonne of meat, to meet the needs of the athletes, who we see as central to the Paris 2024 experience,” Paris Olympics chief executive Etienne Thobois said recently. The 2024 Olympic organising committee is hoping to make athletes more satisfied with the food in the coming days.