Day 294 - 05 Nov 96 - Page 21


     
     1        need for cheap products.  And the point I am making is I do
     2        not think they deliberately want to have unhealthy food or
     3        even that, you know, if it happens they think it is a good
     4        thing.  Obviously, they think it is a bad thing when it
     5        happens.
     6
     7        But the point is, because of their deliberate policy in
     8        having food of these ingredients at this speed in this high
     9        pressured environment in their stores, they must know that
    10        the food safety issues are going to be magnified rather
    11        than reduced.  So I don't think they consciously want to
    12        magnify the food safety problems, but I do think that in
    13        order to maintain their profits they have to cut corners
    14        and have systems that are fragile and flawed.
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.
    17
    18   MS. STEEL:   Can I just say something on this, which is they
    19        want the production system to be very fast so that they can
    20        have rapid turnover and thereby make more profits.  They do
    21        not want customers kept waiting, I think it is longer than
    22        a minute or two minutes, for their food because otherwise
    23        they know that they will turn away and might go somewhere
    24        else.  And the reality is the majority of people, if they
    25        got food poisoning, would not know the source of the food
    26        poisoning.  Most cases of food poisoning would be mild and
    27        people might not even bother going to their doctors, and it
    28        is only when they go to their doctors and it is serious
    29        that there is any kind of investigation into the source of
    30        it.
    31
    32        And in terms of if people think they have got the food
    33        poisoning from McDonald's, we have heard that, you know,
    34        they take their burger back or whatever and complain or
    35        they make a complaint and basically they get offered a
    36        replacement.  And that is going to work out a lot cheaper
    37        for McDonald's than slowing down the production system to
    38        ensure that all the products are thoroughly cooked.
    39
    40        Then obviously, in cases where there is a serious outbreak
    41        of food poisoning, despite all the evidence pointing
    42        totally in their direction, being completely overwhelming,
    43        McDonald's deny it, deny all responsibility for it.  So
    44        I think the point is that obviously they do not want people
    45        to get food poisoning, but if -- well, it is where they are
    46        choosing to draw the line.
    47
    48   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   I think the point which will be put against
    49        you is that not only do they not want people to get food
    50        poisoning, they would not want there to be any risk which
    51        they could avoid.
    52
    53   MS. STEEL:   Well, they know there is a risk.  If they were
    54        serious about the risk, then the lessons which should have
    55        been learned in the USA after the E.Coli food poisoning
    56        outbreak over there would have been sent all around the
    57        world to all the branches to get them to enforce it over
    58        here as well.
    59
    60   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   These are points of detailed argument and I

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