Day 085 - 08 Feb 95 - Page 46
1
2 Q. Mr. Wignall said in his statement they were required to be
3 undertaken weekly. Has it changed now, changed to daily?
4 A. This would encompass all the calibrations that needed
5 to be undertaken weekly. Some would be broken out on to
6 each day, so under each day you would do a certain task.
7 Some tasks would have to be done twice per week.
8
9 Q. You say in paragraph 9 -- well, it is Mr. Wignall's
10 statement but you have adopted it -- that neither the
11 source nor the cause of the Preston incident was ever
12 clearly identified. "McDonald's decided that they should
13 take comprehensive measures to ensure that, as far as
14 possible, no such incident should occur in the future".
15 What do you know about the incident?
16 A. What I know about the incident was that at the time of
17 the Preston incident I was Operations Manager in Anglia.
18 Some time after the Preston incident -- we heard that
19 someone in Preston had got food poisoning that was
20 associated, possibly associated, with a restaurant. That
21 was it, really. Could you tell me where I am -----
22
23 Q. Paragraph 9 of the statement. It is page 53. You have
24 found it?
25 A. Yes.
26
27 Q. Have you actually read this statement of Mr. Wignall?
28 A. Read it through in great detail many times.
29
30 Q. The "comprehensive measures" that were taken as a result of
31 this outbreak of food poisoning, can you just tell us what
32 they were, not in detail but just tell us what?
33 A. Could I just read through this paragraph to
34 refamiliarise myself, please?
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
37 A. Yes. I think, really, what Preston did was to focus
38 our attention on this area and a lot of the -- whether it
39 was us or not, the impact of an incident like this
40 associated with our store really focused our minds on doing
41 whatever we could to record and prevent such things
42 happening again. I think at the time, I cannot remember
43 comprehensive measures being taken as regards what happened
44 in the operation, other than checking the temperature time
45 of the grill more frequently. I think the comprehensive
46 measures are things that have happened from 1991 to date of
47 which there are a substantial number.
48
49 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The two measures which are mentioned there
50 are more rigorous calibration checks and increasing cooking
51 times; was there anything else done ---
52 A. I do not think ------
53
54 Q. -- which might be considered to be a comprehensive measure?
55 A. I do not think there is anything else done immediately
56 after -- this is from my viewpoint as what was asked of me
57 as an Operations Manager -- but I know subsequently to the
58 safety of beef, there has been substantial comprehensive
59 other measures taken to cover off every possible angle on
60 this issue.
