Day 086 - 09 Feb 95 - Page 83
1 sewage incident in a restaurant in Southend in 1993?
2 A. I remember the question.
3
4 Q. You said something about raw sewage in the washing up area
5 -- I cannot remember -- or it may have been the
6 preparation area. Do you remember that?
7 A. I remember the question.
8
9 Q. You said you did not know about it?
10 A. I have not heard of it.
11
12 Q. Answer me, please, an hypothetical question: Suppose it
13 turned out that that incident was the result of a fault in
14 the construction of the building or in the plumbing which
15 had been satisfactorily remedied as soon as it happened,
16 yes? Make that hypothesis, then please answer me. From
17 your position in the company, would the incident give you
18 cause for continuing concern or not?
19 A. No, I do not think so.
20
21 Q. You were asked about your reaction to supposed reports by
22 Public Health authorities on food poisoning incidents
23 supposedly attributable to McDonald's, yes?
24 A. Yes.
25
26 Q. When these things happen and there is a suggestion that
27 McDonald's may be at fault, does McDonald's makes its own
28 investigations?
29 A. It makes its own investigations.
30
31 Q. On what does it base its future actions and conduct in
32 relation to such incidents? Does it base them on what the
33 Public Health authorities say or on what its own
34 investigations show, or it may be on a combination of both?
35 A. The combination of both.
36
37 Q. You spoke yesterday -- before I leave that -- you remember
38 that Mr. Morris read out (or did when I asked him to do so)
39 an incident which occurred in Maryland, I think it was, in
40 the United States in 1987 about some people who got food
41 poisoning from some shrimps. Do you remember that?
42 A. I remember that.
43
44 Q. The suggestion being that the shrimps had been contaminated
45 by a member of staff unknown to the restaurant was a
46 typhoid carrier?
47 A. I remember.
48
49 Q. Looking at it from your point of view, do you think now
50 that you know about that incident, that there is anything
51 that an operation like McDonald's can do to prevent such an
52 occurrence?
53 A. Well, we ask our staff to inform us of any illnesses
54 that may cause food poisoning on interview. Also when we
55 hire someone there are questions about health, but other
56 than that if someone chooses not to tell us, I do not how
57 we could know that they had a disease such as that.
58
59 Q. Would you think it appropriate to make them all undergo
60 regular blood tests, for example?
