Day 094 - 01 Mar 95 - Page 59


     
     1
     2   Q.   Yes.
     3        A.  Yes.
     4
     5   Q.   Have you seen any of those?
     6        A.  No, I have not.
     7
     8   Q.   Never?
     9        A.  No.  The same thing.  I have seen their heads get
    10        contaminated, yes, but they are then separated from the
    11        line.  But I have never seen anybody, especially an
    12        employee, removing a Federal tag.
    13
    14   Q.   The final paragraph, what is written there, would that
    15        concern you if that was true?
    16        A.  Yes, I would be concerned if I read that.
    17
    18   Q.   If it was true would you instruct your suppliers to
    19        discontinue purchasing beef from Montfort?
    20        A.  No.  That part of it is not part of the meat that we
    21        buy.  So, I cannot make that kind of decision.
    22
    23   Q.   Those lymph nodes and things like that, they can be
    24        indicators for other problems that are in the animal, can
    25        they not?
    26        A.  Yes and no, but it has nothing to do with our side of
    27        business.  Again, by reading a paragraph I cannot make a
    28        decision as important as that one.  I would have to find
    29        the facts.  I cannot make decisions based on that.  It is
    30        hard to speculate.
    31
    32   Q.   If you turn over the page and just read the following
    33        paragraph?
    34        A.  Page 38, right?
    35
    36   Q.   Yes, that is right.  The paragraph at the bottom of the
    37        page, not the conflicts with the regulators.
    38        A.  OK.
    39
    40   Q.   Would that surprise you?  If that was true would it
    41        surprise you?
    42        A.  No, it would not surprise me.
    43
    44   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I think is being put is that would it
    45        surprise you if a high count of Escherichia -- is that how
    46        it is pronounced?  It is the E in E. coli?
    47        A.  That is correct.  If you test for it there is a wide
    48        range of species that will fall into that category.  E.coli
    49        is just 0157.
    50 
    51   Q.   It does not mean to say it is 0157? 
    52        A.  That is correct.  It does not mean it is harmful.  What 
    53        would surprise me is that this meat in the process was
    54        contaminated by the inspector, it was temperature abuse by
    55        inspector, because probably it did not go into a
    56        refrigerated container.  There are a lot of things that
    57        could happen.  So if you do that you obviously get those
    58        kinds of results.  Under those conditions, does it surprise
    59        me, absolutely not.
    60

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