Day 008 - 07 Jul 94 - Page 22


     
     1        in food protection and contrary to the interests of public
              health.'
     2
              Conclusion.  These public health considerations need to be
     3        given full weight in any decision affecting the
              availability and use of disposables for food service and
     4        packaging".
 
     5        Mr. Langert, my question is this:  Does McDonald's give
              these public health considerations their full weight in
     6        the decision what kind of materials to use in a store?
              A.  Yes, we do.  We place the sanitation issue as one of
     7        the very basic philosophies of our company.  We will not
              sacrifice any standards related to quality and public
     8        health and sanitation.  If I can illustrate two examples
              of my own personal experience with public health
     9        officials.  One is, in the United States at least, we are
              under extreme scrutiny of public health officials in our
    10        operations to a point where one of the reasons we use more
              packaging sometimes is because of public health officials,
    11        i.e. we wrap straws in the United States; we wrap cutlery
              with plastic sleeves; there are other items which we
    12        wrap.
 
    13        We would, from a pure economical viewpoint, love to not do
              that.  We would probably save half the cost of packaging.
    14        The reason we do that is because public health officials
              expect that and we agree with that.
    15
              Also, in our work with the Environmental Defense Fund when
    16        we studied the reusable issue, our personal experience
              confirmed this, especially in terms of the way dishwashers
    17        work.  Again this is not a dishwasher at home.  This is a
              dishwasher that is washing many times, many cycles per
    18        day.  We happened to visit a sit-down restaurant which the
              Environmental Defense Fund wanted to show, they wanted to
    19        show an operation that used reusables and dishwashers.  We
              went behind the counter and the dishwasher was not
    20        working.  It did not have the proper amount of chemicals
              in it either.
    21
         Q.   Mr. Langert, only one more page in this document at the
    22        moment.  If you turn on to page 66, it is a sideways
              document of a chart?
    23        A.  Yes.
 
    24   Q.   Is this part of the Fairfax County Study?
              A.  Yes.
    25
         Q.   It is headed, "Comparison of Mean Bacteria Counts for 
    26        Disposables and Reusable Foodservice Items from Three 
              Studies (Colonies per Utensil)".  Then we see "Organisms" 
    27        1976 study under "Disposables" and the same date under
              "Reusables"?
    28        A.  Yes.
 
    29   Q.   In the 1976 study the total bacteria count of colonies was
              17.6, yes?
    30        A.  Correct.
 

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