Day 099 - 08 Mar 95 - Page 35


     
     1   Q.   "34.  Cleaning efficiency check for microbiologically",
     2        what does that mean?  What process is that?
     3        A.  That is really what we have just discussed actually,
     4        the swabs and the contact plates.
     5
     6   Q.   You take the contact plate and the swab and then you cart
     7        it off to the lab and analyse it?
     8        A.  And try to grow some bugs on it, yes.
     9
    10   Q.   Try to grow some bugs, yes.   Then 35 -- we saw
    11        microbiological analysis of the product on arrival or the
    12        meat on arrival -- is "microbiological analysis of finished
    13        product"?
    14        A.  Yes.
    15
    16   Q.   Have you seen them doing that?
    17        A.  Yes.
    18
    19   Q.   How extensively do they do it, do you know?
    20        A.  The microbiological testing is heavily weighted on the
    21        side of the raw material, so that they know that the
    22        quality of the raw material going in the production is
    23        good.  So, they would do at least every batch of product
    24        would be -- finished product would be tested, but every
    25        single consignment of raw material into the factory is also
    26        tested.
    27
    28   Q.   Only out of curiosity, what does 37 mean, "cooking dispatch
    29        check"?
    30        A.  It is just an additional cooking test.  The product is
    31        taken off the production line for the cooking tests that
    32        were mentioned earlier but, in addition to that, because
    33        the product may have been, or has been, stored in the
    34        freezer for a period of time before it is dispatched, they
    35        take samples of product out of the freezer, open a case or
    36        two on a pallet, take some product and cook them again, so
    37        it is an additional cooking test.
    38
    39   Q.   Then the addition since 1989, meat traceability
    40        checks. "40.  Raw materials checked for the presence of
    41        E.coli 0157".  We know about that.  "41.  Internal
    42        temperature checks on cooked hamburger patties".  Is that
    43        part of the same thing as 30 and 31, as it were?
    44        A.  It will be done on those products, yes.
    45
    46   Q.   On your side of the business, suppose for a moment a
    47        consignment of unsatisfactory product arrived at a
    48        restaurant, unsatisfactory in the sense that the
    49        temperature was too high or when you had it analysed its
    50        microbiological count was too high, can you trace the 
    51        things back to source? 
    52        A.  We can.  It is very important that we can actually do 
    53        that and we do, yes.
    54
    55   Q.   Or if it is passed its shelf life date, or something like
    56        that?
    57        A.  As long as we have the code, all our products are coded
    58        sufficiently to allow us to trace them back so that we know
    59        what raw materials were used in that product so what other
    60        batches could possibly be affected.

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