Aramark on the blocks for Athens Olympics

The food service manager for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games has forecast 11.5 million meals will be consumed at next year's event.

Makis Fokas, of the Olympic Organising Committee, said it would be the greatest event in the Greek food service market. The Olympic committee has awarded the contract to feed the athletes, coaches and staff to Aramarkdasko, formed by US catering giant Aramark and a Greek business group, Daskalantonakis.

Aramark has provided food for the athletes, coaches and staff at every games, except the winter Olympics held at Salt Lake City in 2002, since the summer Olympics in Mexico in 1968.

A spokeswoman for Aramark in the USA said it was providing 60,000 meals a day from 1 August, when the Olympic village opened, until the end of the Para-Olympics on 30 September. Preparations were already under way, she added.