Day 107 - 24 Mar 95 - Page 27


     
     1
     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  -- 13,600 or something, you would have 13,600
     3        tests.
     4
     5   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, he gave two counts.  I agree it is -----
     6
     7   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That may have been completely wrong.  It may
     8        have been a bit was taken from each, emulsified, and there
     9        was only one test or there were only two tests, I just do
    10        not know.
    11
    12   MR. RAMPTON:  I do not know, but there were two kinds of tests
    13        anyway that he mentioned.  There is the chemical analysis
    14        and the microbiological analysis.  The chemical analysis is
    15        used mostly, I think, to ascertain the fat content.
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I see.  The point Mr. Morris is simply making
    18        is, let us just concentrate on regular hamburger and
    19        quarter pounder, the conclusion which might be drawn from
    20        Mr. Walker's evidence, if it was accepted, is that there
    21        would be several thousand microbiological tests on those,
    22        and yet we have, as you have now explained, three
    23        microbiological tests.
    24
    25        Now you have reminded me that there were chemical tests as
    26        well, no doubt entirely through my own fault I had not
    27        appreciated that they might be directed at what the fat
    28        proportion was rather than any kind of safety test, if, in
    29        effect, what is being said is that there would be, to take
    30        that day as an example, three microbiological tests on
    31        finished hamburgers, then there we are, I understand what
    32        is being put, and it might not be remarkable that one only
    33        finds three in the log.
    34
    35   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, if it were of any significance, I would
    36        undertake to try to follow that up and find out what the
    37        precise factual position is, and how the figure of 13,000
    38        plus 76, I think it was, is arrived at.
    39
    40        But, My Lord, what I have in mind is something your
    41        Lordship said a moment ago in an exchange between your
    42        Lordship and Mr. North:  It does appear to me that the
    43        Defendants' case on the microbiological testing now is
    44        through the mouth of Mr. North that it is a complete waste
    45        of time so far as food safety is concerned.
    46
    47   MR. MORRIS:  He did not say that.
    48
    49   MR. RAMPTON:  "Completely useless" is what ---
    50 
    51   MR. MORRIS:  He did not say that either. 
    52 
    53   MR. RAMPTON:  -- which to my mind means that -----
    54
    55   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I can look up the precise wording, but, at
    56        the very highest, of very limited use so far as finding
    57        out, discovering whether pathogenic bacteria are in the
    58        product.
    59
    60   MR. RAMPTON:  Exactly.  I think he said that for that purpose

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