Day 078 - 26 Jan 95 - Page 68
1 to it, you would be happy for them to take the papers away
2 and copy them or what-have-you?
3 A. Absolutely.
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Whatever might be the situation with other
6 suppliers, if anyone at McDonald's wanted any sheet of
7 paper or any document belonging to your company, they would
8 only have to ask, would they?
9 A. Yes, my Lord.
10
11 MS. STEEL: That would include records that had come from the
12 abattoirs and things like that?
13 A. Yes, everything. The relationship between McKey and
14 McDonald's -- we often have a saying: "We have got ketchup
15 in our veins as well", we are so close.
16
17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I will ponder overnight what the significance
18 of that metaphor is; it is not immediately obvious to me, I
19 must say.
20
21 MS. STEEL: Can you just say what documents come with the meat
22 from the abattoirs?
23 A. We have always insisted on a veterinary certificate and
24 when I say "we have insisted", legally all we had to have
25 was a meat certificate signed by an EHO which we discussed
26 yesterday. But we have always insisted on a veterinary
27 certificate, but now it is just changing as we speak now at
28 the beginning of this year. There is a new document,
29 Brussels says, it is called a "commercial document" and, as
30 long as the vet signs the commercial document, i.e. the
31 consignment note, that is sufficient. It is being done
32 just to cut down the amount of paper that is moving around
33 Europe.
34
35 Q. Would that have records for individual cows or what?
36 A. Would it have records for individual cows -- only on
37 each toe pin the time of boning is on. Now, I am not sure
38 whether I should prethink you, but once you know the time
39 you can go back to the boning room who have a log which
40 shows you the tag number of the animals being boned. You
41 can go back to the abattoir. It is called "traceability"
42 and it is all in now. Every animal has a number. You can
43 go back to the abattoir, you can go back to the live market
44 -- by law the auctioneer has to keep it -- and you can
45 trace that animal all the way back to its farm,
46 traceability.
47
48 Q. That would just be the farm where they were born, where
49 they were originally tagged, would it not?
50 A. No, it would be the whole history. Every animal now
51 has some identification document.
52
53 Q. How long has that been the case?
54 A. Identification documents came in about halfway through
55 last year. The Minister has just enforced the new tag
56 number which must stay with the animal. I honestly believe
57 it started in January this year.
58
59 Q. So was McKey's doing that -- you have just started doing
60 that when the law has come in or what?
