Day 077 - 25 Jan 95 - Page 59
1
2 Q. Must it?
3 A. Yes, because I bought out McDonald's.
4
5 Q. Right. My Lord, we will get some more of those. Do you
6 still have open, Mr. Walker, page 47 of tab 5 of pink VIII?
7 A. Yes.
8
9 Q. The first of the two sheets, as I said, are pro forma.
10 Page 49 has one that is filled in dated 13th September
11 1993, top left-hand side, recommencing 13th September
12 1993. In fact I think all those samples come from that
13 same same period, September 1993?
14 A. Yes.
15
16 Q. Was there anything similar in existence before that date?
17 A. Yes, I mean we have always carried out a -----
18
19 Q. Have they always been recorded in some form?
20 A. They have always been recorded, but not necessarily in
21 this format. We have always gone through a full cooking
22 test.
23
24 Q. We see, as it happens, from the later ones that I think all
25 the samples have got a satisfactory marking?
26 A. Yes.
27
28 Q. There were no passables or unsatisfactory, but they are
29 only samples. May I ask you this, the sources of
30 contamination in meat are, as we have seen, first of all,
31 possible sources, the slaughterhouse itself which may
32 involve what has come in or with the animal from the market
33 or the farm. What are the possible sources of
34 contamination within your own plant?
35 A. Are you thinking, sir, about bacterialogical
36 contamination?
37
38 Q. Yes, I am talking about bacterialogical contamination.
39 A. Very little because of the temperature control, you
40 see. The meat would be rejected if it was over 4 degrees C
41 when it arrived. It is kept immediately in a chiller. The
42 loading dock is chilled. The meat is stored in the
43 chiller. It is handled so quickly in the grind; frozen
44 meat is added for a technical reason to stop any heat gain
45 during the grinding. It is blended for a maximum of 12 and
46 a half minutes and then it passes immediately down forming
47 freezing lines. The temperature in those tunnels is minus
48 200 and it is down to minus 20 in one and a half minutes.
49 So, from a bacterialogical point of view, it is very
50 unlikely there could be any contamination unless, and I am
51 blue sky thinking now, we had a salmonella carrier.
52
53 Q. A salmonella carrier in what form, human or animal?
54 A. Human.
55
56 Q. I was going to ask about that. To what extent do the humans
57 actually touch the meat which is eventually going to be
58 eaten in McDonald's restaurants?
59 A. They do not. I mean, the meat is in combo's because it
60 is mechanically handled. It is mechanically handled in to
