Day 069 - 19 Dec 94 - Page 16


     
     1        taking legal action against Tyson Foods.
     2
     3        Do you know whether he did or he did not?
     4        A.  I do not know.
     5
     6   Q.   You do not know.  We notice over the page that Dr. Farwell
     7        of the epidemiology branch said that an epidemiology number
     8        would not be needed.
     9
    10        Can we turn over to number 7, page 12?  These are breaded
    11        chicken breast patties from Schwan's Fine Foods, supplied
    12        by Tyson Foods of Rogers, Arkansas.  Is that a McDonald's
    13        plant?
    14        A.  No, it is not.
    15
    16   Q.   The complainant was Shirley King who said that she became
    17        ill after consumption of two of these breaded chicken
    18        breast patties. In each case, according to her account, she
    19        had vomiting, nausea and diarrhoea within half an hour of
    20        eating the product.
    21
    22        Do you know enough about human physiology and pathology of
    23        food-borne illness to know whether it is likely that she
    24        became ill as quickly as that after eating a chicken?
    25        A.  Yes, I do know, and that is not common, and that does
    26        not happen.  It takes at least six hours to 72 hours to
    27        show incidents of food-borne illnesses.  The bacteria has
    28        an incubation period.  What happens is very often they eat
    29        something before that time, prior to the 72 hours, and the
    30        stomach reaches a point in which it cannot take any more
    31        foods.  So it is common and, in this case, it seems that
    32        when they ate that food that is what happened exactly; the
    33        stomach could not handle it any more, and they vomited
    34        within half an hour because it could not digest that food.
    35
    36   Q.   Do you happen to know whether any further action was taken
    37        in that case?
    38        A.  No, I do not.  It is not one of our plants.
    39
    40   Q.   It is not one of yours, certainly.  The eighth document,
    41        page 14, concerns somebody called Jane Cavanagh who bought
    42        some fried chicken leg quarters from Howard County,
    43        supplied by Howard County.  They had been made by Tysons,
    44        Nashville, Arkansas, which is a McDonald's plant, as you
    45        told us.
    46
    47        The chicken leg quarters, it is said, were frozen when
    48        purchased.
    49
    50        "Consumer thawed product in refrigerator.  Product had very 
    51        bad smell.  On 8th July 1993, SCO Forth contacted consumer 
    52        and observed entire 5lb package of product.  Product 
    53        appeared old, badly bruised and had an off condition
    54        smell.  There were no code dates on the package.  There was
    55        the official mark of poultry inspection with no
    56        establishment number either in a circle or anywhere else on
    57        the package.  On 8th July SCO Forth contacted Mr. Jesse
    58        Cobos, a market manager Minyard Food Store, who advised he
    59        had not received any other complaints, but he was surprised
    60        because the chicken looked so bad.  No further action was

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