Day 295 - 06 Nov 96 - Page 25


     
     1
     2        And the reason given here:  Question - "Why do we not check
     3        grill calibration on a daily basis?"  Answer - "Grill
     4        calibration should be checked weekly, according to the
     5        PMC".  I don't know what the PMC is.  "From a product
     6        safety point of view, the critical control point is that
     7        the meat achieves an internal temperature of 70 degrees
     8        Celsius.  Checking daily grill calibration does not ensure
     9        this."
    10
    11        Then it says it is better to take the internal temperature
    12        with a thermometer.  The point was the daily grill
    13        calibration was the only attempt by McDonald's to guarantee
    14        that minimum temperature up until the introduction of the
    15        internal temperature testing, so that is an admission from
    16        John Atherton that they could not ensure, up until the
    17        thermometer testing, that the beef products were achieving
    18        70 degrees.
    19
    20        Do not forget, Colin Clarke's analysis of temperatures were
    21        after the thermometer system was brought in, although of
    22        course he said they were still not reaching the minimum
    23        temperatures that he would recommend.
    24
    25        So all I can say there is, here is a fundamental flaw in
    26        this very fragile system and it is a flaw that is admitted
    27        at the highest level.  That flaw would have been compounded
    28        when the temperature to be attained was less or the times
    29        for cooking were less, because it would have been worse
    30        than fragile, the system; it would have been inadequate.
    31
    32        You said at the time that this came up, the George Rummel
    33        statement about the 1982 outbreak in the USA, you were
    34        considering to be an admission at the time when we brought
    35        it up.  We were arguing effectively he is admitting
    36        responsibility and you said you would take it as an
    37        admission.
    38
    39        That was a paragraph where 47 people, mostly in Michigan
    40        and Oregon, in 1982 were found to be infected with a
    41        previously unknown strain of E.Coli.  The Centre for
    42        Disease Control formed a statistical analysis of the
    43        outbreak and concluded that its research inferred a
    44        numerical correlation between the outbreak and McDonald's.
    45        McDonald's paid the medical bills and related claims of
    46        these individuals as a means of settling the matter to
    47        everyone's satisfaction.  There was never an admission of
    48        liability on McDonald's part.
    49
    50        We disclosed the actual report from the CDC and I think it
    51        was in that context where you were taking it as an
    52        admission and it was not necessary to investigate the
    53        details of that report or argue over them, which saved
    54        court time.
    55
    56        I am sort of a little bit disorganised here, but I am
    57        getting through it quite fast.  If I can just sit down?
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  (Pause)
    60

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