Day 099 - 08 Mar 95 - Page 75
1 A. I have pink VIII, 1B.
2
3 Q. That is the Chicken McNuggets followed by the ----
4 A. Meat patties.
5
6 Q. --- US frozen meat patties. Let him finish this first of
7 all because I am trying to help you on your point.
8 A. Just starting with the frozen beef spec. which is the
9 second page, the only microbiological criterion that
10 McDonald's demand on its patties is the total count.
11
12 MR. MORRIS: This is the McKey document now?
13
14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, it is not. That is his whole point.
15 I referred him to the McKey document. He wants to take us
16 to the McDonald's document saying whatever it says in the
17 McKey microbiological guidelines "Look at what we say".
18
19 MR. MORRIS: This is Chicken McNuggets.
20
21 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. If you turn over the second page it is
22 US frozen meat patties as well.
23
24 MR. MORRIS: Sorry, yes.
25
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
27 A. That is what we ask of McKey's and they supply product
28 that they do not exceed these guidelines for total count.
29 We do not set any parameters for them on salmonella or
30 other specific bacteria in our specification. The
31 specification comes out of our parent company in the
32 States. Now, as a department, the UK Quality Assurance
33 Department which is where I work, we take the specification
34 and work with our suppliers to produce a product that
35 exceeds, matches at least that specification. So, if you
36 look at the back to the McKey document that we had earlier,
37 which is in the yellow file, the only specification there
38 that we insist on is the one at the second paragraph which
39 is referring to total count.
40
41 MR. MORRIS: This is page 16.
42 A. Page 16, yes.
43
44 Q. Total count?
45 A. Yes. The other counts at the bottom of the page are
46 what McKey use internally which are the industry standards,
47 if you like, the UK industry or EC industry standard for
48 minced beef. I do not know if that clarifies?
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It does to this extent, that as I understand
51 it, it does not actually concern you so far as
52 acceptability of the product, whether in fact one of the
53 five samples did have salmonella in 25 grammes and that
54 would not be a ground for rejecting it. McKey's might form
55 its own judgment on whether it accepted the beef which came
56 in tested and found that?
57 A. That is right.
58
59 Q. Whether it processed it and whether it chose to pass it on
60 to the distribution centre, but your absolute is the total?
