Day 099 - 08 Mar 95 - Page 70


     
     1        least four of the buns were mouldy blue. Again I pointed
     2        this out to the grill team leader and to the floor manager.
     3          It was at the height of the lunch-time rush when there
     4        was pressure to keep producing is intense.  Again both the
     5        grill team leader and the floor manager shrugged".
     6
     7   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I am asking you to do is produce
     8        something or point me to something which relates a mouldy
     9        bun to food poisoning.  I can see that there is evidence
    10        about bacteria in meat of various kinds, pathogenic
    11        bacteria.  I am prepared to take judicial notice that if
    12        raw sewage got on to food somehow or other, as it might do
    13        if it was slopping around the kitchen floor the same might
    14        happen.  I do not know of anything in your statements, but
    15        if I have missed it please refer me to it, which suggests
    16        because of mouldy buns or rotten lettuce there is a risk or
    17        incident of food poisoning.  It is not the way the pleading
    18        in the Abstract appears, but if there is some suggestion of
    19        food poisoning or a risk of food poisoning arising from
    20        rotten lettuce or mouldy buns in your witness statements
    21        somewhere or documentation, refer me to it.
    22
    23        Everyone, for instance, has eaten mouldy bread at some time
    24        without realising it, without any adverse effect at all.
    25        I am not prepared to go along the line of saying there is a
    26        risk food poisoning from a mouldy bun.  I just do not know
    27        and you have to show that it appears in such a way that it
    28        can be taken as being pleaded as such under the loose
    29        arrangement which was made.
    30
    31   MS. STEEL:  It reflects on the company's standards of hygiene
    32        and the kind of products they are prepared to use.  If time
    33        is short or they are in a rush period, then they are
    34        prepared to be slack on what are their so-called standards.
    35
    36   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not accept that.  We are on what has
    37        fairly and accurately described as "food poisoning" and
    38        I want to stick to that.  The line must be drawn
    39        somewhere.  There is lots of material on food poisoning
    40        which can fairly be said to relate to what appears in the
    41        leaflet, but there has to be a boundary somewhere.
    42
    43   MR. MORRIS:  I would say that the thrust of McDonald's
    44        defence -- not defence -- it is a defence in terms of the
    45        counterclaim, the evidence they have given is about their
    46        standards and checks they claim dominate their procedures
    47        and if that is all irrelevant to food poisoning -----
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, they are not irrelevant to food
    50        poisoning, but they are relevant to food poisoning within 
    51        the boundaries which I have tried to set out.  Meat 
    52        products, microbiology, all that I understand.  As I have 
    53        said, I am prepared to consider raw sewage in the kitchen
    54        and how that arises from an employee's statement rather
    55        than someone who is specifically a food poisoning witness.
    56        That is my ruling, Mr. Morris.  You must abide by it.  You
    57        have plenty to ask about on the relevant matters.
    58
    59        What I am most interested in in cross-examination, because
    60        I have still to hear your witnesses, is where you challenge

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