Day 107 - 24 Mar 95 - Page 42


     
     1        that, generally, and it was quite a remarkable exercise
     2        because it did show generally the better and cleaner and
     3        brighter the premises looked, the worse the microbiological
     4        standard of the food that actually came out of it.
     5
     6        It was so remarkable that after a prolonged and expensive
     7        sampling and analyses, inspection programme, I disbelieved
     8        the results and insisted that they were repeated.  We did
     9        exactly the same and found exactly the same thing.  Then
    10        I submitted to the court a number of papers with similar
    11        observations, where cleaning clean premises does not
    12        necessarily guarantee you a good standard.
    13
    14        I am shortly to deliver a paper to Utrecht University
    15        recounting my research experiences.  The paper is
    16        indicative or the title of the paper is indicative, which
    17        will be "Cleaning as a cause of food poisoning".  In
    18        certain contexts, the actual pursuit of apparent hygiene is
    19        one of the major mechanisms spreading contamination within
    20        the working environment and distributing it to the food.
    21
    22   Q.   Can you explain how that would be spread?
    23        A.  Well, there was a classic hospital outbreak in 1987
    24        where trays had been used to contain raw defrosting
    25        poultry.  After use the trays were placed in a washing up
    26        sink and washed.  Subsequently, very shortly thereafter,
    27        other plastic trays were washed in the same water, came out
    28        obviously visibly clean, were then used to contain in this
    29        instance a risotto, which was then involved in a fairly
    30        major food poisoning outbreak.
    31
    32        The mechanism devolved that the organisms were identified
    33        with raw chicken and the investigators took the view that
    34        the contamination had been spread from the raw chicken by
    35        the mechanism of washing up the trays used to contain the
    36        food.
    37
    38        I was personally involved in an outbreak in Walsal in 1989,
    39        I think it was, maybe 1990, with a similar mechanism where
    40        a piping bag had been washed in exactly the same scenario.
    41        It had been washed in a sink which -----
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am going to stop you there because I think
    44        we have got to stay as close to McDonald's as we possibly
    45        can.
    46
    47   MS. STEEL:  In terms of -----
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  One can imagine for oneself all sorts of ways
    50        these things could happen. 
    51 
    52   MS. STEEL:  In terms of something that would be relevant to 
    53        McDonald's, are there any implications in the use of
    54        cleaning cloths or items like that?
    55        A.  There is good evidence, both in theoretical studies and
    56        outbreak investigations, that cleaning cloths have been
    57        vectors, have moved contamination and, in fact, fostered
    58        and allowed contamination to multiply on the surface of the
    59        cloths and in the cloths, and then been spread on to other
    60        surfaces which have then become contaminated and thence

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