Day 100 - 09 Mar 95 - Page 37
1 A. No, I think we first started testing at McKey's for
2 E.coli or specifically for E.coli 0157 about 1990.
3
4 Q. So if were you testing in 1990, you missed the E.coli that
5 got through and caused the outbreak of food poisoning in
6 Preston?
7
8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not sure that is a question you can
9 usefully ask him. You are entitled to say to me that that
10 must be the consequence of the admitted fact or facts in
11 relation to Preston.
12
13 MS. STEEL: E.coli is difficult to detect, is it not, is that
14 fair to say?
15 A. 0157 is ---
16
17 Q. Yes?
18 A. -- difficult to detect, yes.
19
20 Q. If there was a test available for E.coli in the States and
21 the company was using that test in the States, or was
22 requiring its suppliers to use that test, would you not
23 expect that to be something that would be taken up over
24 here as well?
25 A. It is quite often normal that we follow the procedures
26 that are adopted in the States and, obviously, if it was
27 written into the McDonald's specification, then we would
28 follow that. But, quite honestly, the end product testing
29 for E.coli 0157 is just a matter of really recording what
30 the history of your product is like, what the supply is
31 like. Short of end product testing every single piece of
32 meat that leaves the factory, in which case you would not
33 have any meat leaving the factory -----
34
35 Q. So there is not much you can do?
36 A. Well, no, you put controls in place throughout the
37 system to reduce the risk as far as possible. Then at the
38 end of the system you take a sample to monitor how
39 effective you have been. We certainly had exactly the same
40 controls in place, although obviously as we learn new
41 things we put them into practice, but the same controls
42 would have been in place before 1990 -- just the end
43 product testing was not there.
44
45 Q. What controls would there have been to prevent E.coli
46 getting in before 1990?
47 A. The only controls you can have over that is to prevent
48 contamination in the slaughterhouse.
49
50 Q. What was being done about that in 1990 in respect of E.coli
51 0157?
52 A. Well -----
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Why do you distinguish that from the others?
55 I will assume that it is thought that the procedures will
56 protect against E.coli as well as other pathogenic
57 organisms. If you have something you say which should have
58 been done in the processing, apart from testing, because
59 you have raised testing and you have now moved on,
60 I suggest you put it to him.
