Day 125 - 12 May 95 - Page 10


     
     1        would be to look and see if there is anything more you can
     2        do to be sure, or even more sure, than you already were,
     3        that it did not happen to you.  That is really what you are
     4        saying?
     5        A.  That is correct, my Lord.
     6
     7   MS. STEEL:  I do not think I was trying to negate that,
     8        I think.  (To the witness):  The point is, though, that you
     9        had had an incident with the same type of food poisoning
    10        organism in McDonald's in the early 1980s.  1982, I think
    11        it was?
    12        A.  I believe there may have been an isolated case.
    13
    14   Q.   I think there were about 68, at least 68, people affected
    15        in Michigan and Oregon who suffered E.coli 0157: H food
    16        poisoning as a result of eating McDonald's burgers?
    17        A.  I am not certain of that number.  I do not know where
    18        you get your information.  That is certainly something that
    19        can be looked into, but I am not prepared to say that that
    20        is true.  I cannot tell you that that is true.
    21
    22   Q.   I think it is, by and large, accepted by Mr. George Rummel,
    23        whom, I presume, you know?
    24        A.  Yes, I do.
    25
    26   Q.   You are aware of incident, whether or not you are aware of
    27        how many people it affected?
    28        A.  I know there was some incident in Michigan, yes.
    29
    30   Q.   The steps you took after the Jack-in-the-box incident, why
    31        did you not take those steps after the incident that
    32        involved McDonald's in 1982?
    33        A.  Well, you are presuming that we did not.  Again I want
    34        to say that we have continued to be vigilant in looking at
    35        our Operations procedures, and when situations occur, we
    36        always take a step back and see how we can do things
    37        differently, better, to better serve our customer, and
    38        safeguard the safety of our employees and customers.  It
    39        just makes good sense to do so.  So I would -----
    40
    41   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Just pause there a moment.  I think you
    42        should find out how much (and it sounds to me as if it may
    43        be very little) Mr. Beavers knows, because if he does not
    44        know much about it, it is a bit difficult to ask him about
    45        why one did not do this.
    46
    47   MS. STEEL:  Do you know what action the Company took after the
    48        incident of people suffering food poisoning after eating
    49        McDonald's products in 1982?
    50        A.  I know we reviewed all of our operations and procedures 
    51        and the preparation of all meat products; reviewed the 
    52        sanitation procedures of our employees through, in various 
    53        ways.  We made sure that various pieces of sanitary
    54        equipment were maintained in our restaurants.  So, during
    55        the travel path of a supervisor, the store manager, the
    56        soap dispensers, towel dispensers near sinks and what-not,
    57        would check to make sure they were properly maintained.
    58        The towels, grill towels that were used were kept in an
    59        antimicrobial wash.  So, there were just a number of
    60        procedures, additional procedures, that were looked at.

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