Day 094 - 01 Mar 95 - Page 32


     
     1        E.coli infected burgers, have they not?
     2        A.  You are asking two questions.
     3
     4   Q.   Let me just ask that question?
     5        A.  Let me answer both questions.  (1) nothing is perfect
     6        in this life.  You have to make, to draw a conclusion we
     7        have to look at the facts.  The facts are today we serve 28
     8        million people per day -----
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, but, look, leave that.  I take that
    11        point it.  May turn out at the end of the day to be a very
    12        good one.  All you are being asked is, really, whether it
    13        does not show that the burgers must have been under-cooked
    14        in Preston.  You seem to be resistant to accepting that,
    15        and seem to say:  "That is not what our evidence shows".
    16        You could perfectly well say:  "It looks as if we did
    17        under-cook some burgers in Preston, that is a drop in the
    18        ocean", but that is not what you are saying?
    19        A.  No, no, no.  I will accept that under-cooking can cause
    20        a food illness, in this particular case with E.coli, yes,
    21        I will accept that.  We know that we have done a lot of
    22        research, yes.  In reference with the Jack-in-the-box, we
    23        have nothing to do with that.
    24
    25   MR. MORRIS:  No, but people did die from eating E.coli infected
    26        burgers?
    27        A.  Yes, they did.
    28
    29   MR. MORRIS:  When you said that the Centre for Disease Control,
    30        you said something about they never found E.coli in the
    31        patties, or something like that?
    32        A.  That is correct.
    33
    34   Q.   They analysed the patties and they isolated E.coli 0157 H7,
    35        did they not, in their report, or you do not know?
    36        A.  I have -- I have not read their report.  From what
    37        I understand, when they went and looked at our procedures,
    38        including our cooking procedures, what we serve to the
    39        customer, they did not find the E.coli bacteria.
    40
    41   Q.   So if they are saying -----
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Are we in Preston or Oregon at the moment?
    44
    45   MR. MORRIS:  This is Oregon.  (To the witness):  If it says:
    46         "E.coli 0157 H7 was not isolated from food samples
    47        collected in Oregon but was isolated from a frozen, raw,
    48        standard size hamburger patty from a suspected lot used at
    49        the Michigan restaurants during the outbreak period", then
    50        would you accept if it says that --- 
    51        A.  Yes, that is what it says. 
    52 
    53   Q.   -- that would identify the .....
    54        A.  Yes.
    55
    56   Q.   So it is not just the under-cooking of burgers that could
    57        lead to a risk, it is also cross-contamination?
    58        A.  That is correct.
    59
    60   Q.   You have seen the McKey's plant at Milton Keynes?

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