Day 125 - 12 May 95 - Page 14


     
     1   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That, I really cannot be concerned with.
     2
     3   MR. MORRIS:  I know. (To the witness):  But you are aware that
     4        the administration, when it was looking into the
     5        Jack-in-the-box incident, was considering new regulations,
     6        whatever the specifics of those regulations were, to try to
     7        prevent that incident happening again, that kind of
     8        incident happening again?
     9        A.  They wanted to examine all aspects of the supply line
    10        from beginning to end.
    11
    12   Q.   But they were considering introducing regulations?
    13        A.  If necessary, if necessary.
    14
    15   Q.   That is the point I am trying to make.
    16        A.  If necessary.
    17
    18   Q.   OK.
    19
    20   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, it is not really OK.  I do not know -----
    21
    22   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Does it really matter?  I would have thought
    23        the one thing any fast-food chain would fear, more than any
    24        Government regulation, is that people start dying after
    25        eating their food.  If anything is going to bring a company
    26        to its knees, it is that.  Where that takes us as to
    27        whether your procedures beforehand were adequate or not,
    28        I would have thought is a fact of life.
    29
    30   MR. RAMPTON:  Mr. Morris may be lining himself up for a
    31        suggestion to your Lordship in six months time, or so, that
    32        the only reason McDonald's felt impelled to do whatever
    33        they did do was because they feared the threat of
    34        regulation by the government.  If that is the suggestion,
    35        he should put it.
    36
    37   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not know whether Mr. Morris will do that
    38        or not.
    39
    40   MR. MORRIS:  I certainly would put that suggestion, that the
    41        reason that you increased your internal temperature of your
    42        burgers was because you knew that the Government would be
    43        considering regulations to force the burger chains to
    44        increase their internal temperatures of their finished
    45        products?
    46        A.  I reject that.  I reject that.  That is not true.  Our
    47        standards are the highest in the industry; were more than
    48        acceptable; were beyond the parameters required by the
    49        Government.  Again, the reason we made various changes was
    50        to ensure, to make very, very sure, that the likelihood of 
    51        the Jack-in-the-Box situation happening to us would be 
    52        greatly minimised. 
    53
    54   MS. STEEL:  If you turn to bundle page 20, internal page 197,
    55        this is about milk shakes.  In the bottom paragraph, in the
    56        left-hand column, which is under:  "Milk shake Re-run", it
    57        says:  "Re-run must be used early because of potential for
    58        bacteria build-up.  It should be used immediately following
    59        the initial machine start up.  Some local health
    60        departments do not allow re-run to be used".  Why do some

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