Day 107 - 24 Mar 95 - Page 43


     
     1        contaminated the food.  This is a very well-known
     2        mechanism.
     3
     4        There is a secondary mechanism involved in the use of
     5        cloths, is that people who then touch those cloths then
     6        acquire finger tip contamination and if they then go on to
     7        handle the food can transfer the contamination on to that
     8        food.  So, yes, this is a widely known mechanism.
     9
    10   Q.   I am not really sure 100 per cent whether this has been
    11        covered or not, so to save time just in case anything has
    12        been missed out, would you be happy to have paragraphs 17
    13        and 22 of your statement of 13th January taken as read or
    14        is there anything you -----
    15        A.  17.2.22?
    16
    17   Q.   No, 17 and 22?
    18        A.  Yes.
    19
    20   MR. MORRIS:  I think there was just one other question:
    21        Mr. Walker said that McDonald's insist their meat is E.coli
    22        free.  This is when he is being examined by Mr. Rampton, he
    23        asked:  "McDonald's insist that their meat is E.coli free,
    24        in effect; is that right?"  He said:  "Yes".  Have you any
    25        comment on that?
    26        A.  From direct personal experience, if Mr. Walker made
    27        that -- if Mr. Walker that as a statement outside the
    28        court, in other words, if anybody, either McDonald's or
    29        Mr. Walker, said -- and I appreciate actually that they
    30        have not actually said that, but if he said it there would
    31        be good cause to consider that an offence had been created
    32        under the Trades Description Act.
    33
    34        The reason I say that is because we had an identical
    35        scenario with salmonella in laying hens.  Poultry men were
    36        going out doing very, very much more rigorous testing than
    37        was carried out on Mr. Walker's meat and putting signs up
    38        saying "salmonella free".
    39
    40        They were instructed under threat of prosecution by Trading
    41        Standards Officers to remove those signs and to desist from
    42        making such claims which could not be substantiated.  The
    43        only claim that would be allowable would be that they had
    44        been tested and the tests had failed to reveal X, Y and Z.
    45
    46   Q.   For the record, that statement is actually in the
    47        transcript on day 77, page 45, line 18.  That is,
    48        Mr. Walker was asked what his response was.
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You do not need to look it up. 
    51 
    52   MS. STEEL:  There is something else that I was looking for:  Is 
    53        lactic acid in meat produced as a result of stress in the
    54        animal?
    55        A.  No, lactic acid is formed by exercise in extreme cases
    56         -- extreme exertion in the live animal where the body
    57        outstrips the capability of the blood supply to support
    58        individual muscle with oxygen, and this happens in us as
    59        well.  That is how you get a stitch if you run incredibly
    60        fast for a long time; you can start feeling a stitch.  That

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