Day 107 - 24 Mar 95 - Page 30
1
2 Q. Do, please.
3 A. Essentially, not terribly reassured. I have a great
4 deal of experience in using that type of equipment and also
5 a great deal of experience in monitoring other people using
6 that type of equipment. I am aware through that experience
7 that two different operators of the equipment, identical
8 sets of equipment, measuring the same piece of food can
9 come up with substantially different results.
10
11 MR. MORRIS: When you say "that equipment", what do you mean?
12 A. Sorry, the temperature measuring equipment.
13
14 Q. The internal thermometer?
15 A. That is right. It takes a great deal of skill and a
16 great deal of experience -- far more than would be apparent
17 -- to get an accurate reading from that type of
18 equipment. Therefore, the sort of checks carried out by
19 the sort of personnel involved are not, in my view, of a
20 type which are likely to be particularly reliable, and then
21 in the context of their frequency, having regard to the
22 cooking equipment now, which is itself subject to
23 variation, the fact is that even if the tests themselves
24 were accurate, the equipment is subject to various
25 fluctuations in performance which could enable it to give,
26 impart, temperatures to that food very different from the
27 calibration setups.
28
29 I am sorry, I am not being very clear. Essentially, what
30 I am saying is that it is one thing calibrating that
31 equipment, but it is not like a fixed piece of scientific
32 equipment; it is one which is subject to enormous
33 variations so that the calibration does not necessarily
34 represent what will happen, in fact, during the course of a
35 working day.
36
37 Q. When you say "happen" you mean happen to each burger?
38 A. Happen to each burger through the course of the day.
39 So, you have two heads; one is the calibration process is
40 not particularly accurate and then, in any case, the
41 cooking equipment subject to calibration and checking is
42 prone to variation.
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am sorry, I thought we were on the
45 measurement of the internal temperature of the burger?
46 A. Yes, that is the point, my Lord. Sorry, the purpose of
47 measuring the temperature is, essentially, to calibrate the
48 cooking equipment, to make sure that the cooking equipment
49 is working properly.
50
51 Q. That is not what I have been told so far. So, what I need
52 to understand is whether you are saying the internal
53 temperature of the burger, the testing of that, is
54 unreliable.
55
56 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, may I say something?
57
58 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
59
60 MR. RAMPTON: Once again, I am appalled by what is now
