Day 105 - 16 Mar 95 - Page 16
1
2 Q. Have the standards in the abattoir industry improved as a
3 whole in the last 10 years?
4 A. Is that on a measure of food safety or quality or
5 buildings?
6
7 Q. We are concerned with food safety mainly. Yes, in terms of
8 food safety procedures and concerns and results?
9 A. In my opinion, there is a very low degree of risk in
10 abattoirs in the first case. Therefore, to measure any
11 improvement in terms of food poisoning outbreaks would be
12 difficult -- almost impossible.
13
14 Q. But people do get food poisoning, do they not, from meat
15 products?
16 A. The incidence is so low and random that it is very
17 difficult to measure it in any realistic term.
18
19 Q. So, if there are 30,000 reported incidents of Salmonella
20 poisoning, reported incidents, that have resulted in
21 identification of Salmonella bacteria, you think that is
22 low, do you?
23 A. Of those 30,000, between 60 and 70 per cent, depending
24 on the figures you take, are caused by poultry, or can be
25 traced back to poultry; 10 per cent are contracted abroad;
26 10 per cent arise from human carriers at the catering
27 stage. A few more per cent, up to 10 per cent, come via
28 dairy products, shell fish and that type of food. The
29 incidence of food poisoning attributed to red meat is what
30 is left. My arithmetic is suspect but it comes to
31 one per cent or one-half of one per cent.
32
33 Q. Of all food poisoning incidents?
34 A. Of Salmonella, I think.
35
36 Q. I was only giving Salmonella as an example. In the
37 spectrum of all food poisoning incidents, whether
38 Salmonella or other, apart from chicken, red meat is a
39 significant source of food poisoning?
40 A. Not at all. We have dealt with Salmonella and shown
41 that red meat is involved in a minuscule proportion of
42 cases. We can deal with whatever other type of food
43 poisoning you would ask me about.
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What band of seriousness did 30,000 cases
46 cover? It is one for every 2,000 members of the population
47 of this country, very broadly speaking?
48 A. Yes, it is measured in groups of 100,000 so that would
49 be 10, 15, would it not, per 100,000, yes, of that order.
50
51 Q. Yes, but at one end there might be a fatality or fatalities
52 down to what, just any case which the person has felt
53 unwell enough to go to the doctor who has thought fit
54 enough to make enquiry which has identified the organism?
55 A. I am sorry, yes. The symptoms of food poisoning,
56 generally, are sickness and diarrhoea and feeling generally
57 unwell. In the vast majority of cases that is the sum of
58 it.
59
60 In certain target populations, if I could add, that is,
