British athletes and officials should seize the opportunity of staying in the Olympic Village and other visitors from the UK use their stay in China to gorge on the Peking Duck.

And it's very important that they do so, for back home in the UK the dish could be off restaurants' menu owing to a European Union (EU) ban on the ovens traditionally used to make it, the London-based Daily Mail has reported.

UK officials are busy inspecting restaurants and sealing the ovens because they do not carry a CE (Conformit Europenne) mark to meet the standards on carbon-monoxide emission.

The newspaper said the clampdown comes despite officials conceding that no health problems linked to the ovens made in China have been reported.

Qiao Jie, general secretary of the Beijing-based China Cuisine Association, said Monday that the British move was a misunderstanding of the Chinese art of cooking.

"Chinese dishes have been subject to a lot of misunderstandings in terms of quality and nutrition Cooking is not only about science and nutrition, but also art."

China should set up its own standards for traditional cooking equipment to protect the reputation of Chinese dishes across the world, Qiao said.

The Peking Duck has a history of more than 600 years.

It is usually cooked in a 6-foot-high drum-shaped oven, which is much larger than a conventional commercial oven and can roast up to 24 ducks and four suckling pigs at a time.

All the ovens used in UK restaurants have been imported from China because there are no European manufacturers for them.