Day 001 - 28 Jun 94 - Page 42
1 restaurant? The answer is, no. The reasons are, first,
quite apart from any question of social responsibility,
2 and indeed legal liability for that matter, McDonald's
have absolutely no interest in poisoning their customers.
3 If there were frequent outbreaks of food poisoning amongst
McDonald's customers, the public would stop eating at
4 McDonald's restaurant over night and the next day
McDonald's business would be dead.
5
In consequence, my Lord, they take the most rigorous steps
6 -- they must do -- to ensure that the risk of food
poisoning at their restaurants is kept to the absolute
7 minimum. This necessarily entails thorough training of
staff in hygiene matters and fastidious requirements as to
8 the handling and cooking of the food in the restaurants.
9 It goes much further than that. Recognising, as they do,
that the risk of food poisoning may also occur at
10 different stages before ever the food gets into the
restaurants, for example, at the slaughter house or in the
11 meat processing factory, McDonald's insist on the highest
standards of quality and hygiene control by their
12 suppliers.
13 This is not difficult because suppliers, just like
McDonald's themselves, have no interest at all in
14 supplying contaminated meat or chicken for public
consumption. If they did that, they would not only
15 quickly lose McDonald's custom (which would be a heavy
blow to them), they would lose all their other customers
16 as well. That is, as I have said before, really rather
obvious -- I apologise for it -- but it is true. It is,
17 therefore, entirely in the suppliers' own interests to
meet the high standards demanded of them by McDonald's.
18
In the consequence, representatives of the suppliers will
19 be coming to give evidence to your Lordship in detail of
how this is achieved by their respective companies.
20 I remind your Lordship who these gentlemen are because
they do happen to be all male. There is Dr. Mark Pattison
21 of Sun Valley poultry which process chickens, the
reference is yellow bundle VII/5; Mr. Ashley Bowes of G D
22 Bowes & Sons who slaughter pigs, he is VII/6; Mr. Tim
Chambers of Midlands Meat Packers who slaughter cattle, he
23 is at VII/7 and Mr. David Walker of McKey Food Service
which processes the meat for McDonald's, he is 7/8.
24
My Lord I note in passing which your Lordship knows but
25 needs to be known to the world at large this, that
McDonald's do not own any land, apart from restaurants and
26 offices, any farms or ranches, any animals, any slaughter
houses, any processing plants anywhere in the world.
27
In addition, my Lord, to the witnesses from the suppliers,
28 your Lordship will hear from Mr. Colin Clarke and
Dr. Michael Jackson, reference WBVIII/10 and 11. They
29 come from the Division of Environmental Health at
Strathclyde University. They have made reports
30 respectively on the hygiene status of a selection of
McDonald's restaurants in Scotland and on the hygiene
