With up to half a million well-heeled tourists due to visit South Africa next year for at least five weeks during the World Cup, Food and drink suppliers can expect a boom.

It is estimated that these visitors will eat more than 30 million meals over a five week period, mostly benefiting hotels, restaurants and fast food outlets and their suppliers.

Breakfast alone for these hungry fans will require about 116.5 million tons of cereal, 93.2 tons of bread, almost 70 tons of bacon, 4.7 million eggs, 311 777 litres of milk and 116 510 litres of yoghurt.

This of course is over and above what South Africans will eat while the tournament is on. For example, residents are likely to eat about 12.5 million eggs, based on a rough estimate of egg consumption using 2007 data from the International Egg Commission. This does not include eggs used in processed food.

So not only does South Africa have to ramp up production, but it has to get food supplies to restaurants, hotels and fast food outlets at the right time and in the right quantity.

It also means that food safety standards need to be strictly adhered to, so that a boom does not turn out to be a bust.

DuPont has warned that South Africa needs to have proper systems in place to test food quickly and accurately as the cost for producers of recalling a product and losing production time can be high.

A 2006 study by Washington State University estimated the cost for contaminated product recall is $540 000 (R4.2 million) but it can be as high as $7m. The average cost of litigation for a contaminated product is $200 000.

That is not to mention the unquantifiable cost to South Africa's reputation if a whole lot of tourists come down with food poisoning.