Day 106 - 23 Mar 95 - Page 46
1 involved in deboning and throwing bits of meat from a
2 number of birds into one container?
3 A. That is true.
4
5 MS. STEEL: Were you actually given any figures by Sun Valley
6 for the deboned meat in 1989/1990?
7 A. No.
8
9 Q. The improvements that they said they were making as part of
10 salmonella reduction programme, when did they say that they
11 had brought about these improvements?
12 A. The improvements have been progressive. The specific
13 style and dates of improvement were not suggested. I know
14 from living in and working with the industry, I know a
15 number of the Sun Valley producers, for instance. I do not
16 necessarily need to refer specifically to Sun Valley. The
17 key was the 1988 when it was found that we had what was
18 styled then a new epidemic or an epidemic of a particular
19 strain of salmonella, the salmonella enteriditis, and the
20 balloon went up late 1988 with Mrs. Edwina Curry's
21 statement.
22
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That was in 1988?
24 A. That is right. The real drive, the industry drive
25 towards improvement got underway, a progressive improvement
26 through 1989 and onwards.
27
28 MS. STEEL: Right. If we can move on to McKey's now; if you go
29 through the same?
30 A. McKey's -- very impressive from approach onwards. It
31 is in a new industrial estate. It is in Milton Keynes, so
32 it is part of a new town. Wide, boulevards, plenty of
33 greenery. You come to the site itself. It presents an
34 extremely impressive modern building.
35
36 You enter into a well-furnished lobby, you go upstairs
37 which are carpeted, and there is a gold notice board
38 welcoming Richard North to an ornate, very well decorated
39 reception area. They treated me extremely well there in
40 terms of the staff they made available to take me round.
41
42 Going round, I made a somewhat provocative remark, that it
43 was primitive in the sense that the technology was basic,
44 there was no high tech electronics, and no really state of
45 the art high tech equipment, but it was more than adequate
46 for the purpose; well equipped in that sense, clean, well
47 finished, well decorated, good structural repair and, in
48 that sense, the visible aspects could hardly be faulted.
49 I mean, you would have to be brutal probably to start
50 picking up bits and pieces of disrepair and wear and tear
51 and odds and bobs.
52
53 However, and this is the general distinction I have sought
54 to convey -----
55
56 Q. Sorry, when you are talking about "impressive" you are
57 talking about visually impressive?
58 A. The visual, yes, and, as I have remarked and so often
59 found in my studies, that the visual means very little or
60 can mean very little. What really matters is the food that
