Day 077 - 25 Jan 95 - Page 54
1
2 Q. You remember, I expect, all too well the outbreak of food
3 poisoning which was attributed to a single McDonald's store
4 at Friar's Gate in Preston in January 1991?
5 A. Yes.
6
7 Q. There will be evidence in this court -- there has been some
8 already but there will be further evidence -- about what
9 McDonald's did in consequence of that. Did you do
10 anything, your company, in consequence of that incident?
11 A. Yes, when we were notified of the incident and the
12 suspicion of the cause of the incident, I called in Camden
13 Food Research Organisation to carry out an audit on my
14 plant and my procedures, again Dr. Jeff Banks. It was his
15 department that carried out the audit and they could not
16 even find any E.coli in my drains or fat traps.
17
18 Q. Did you introduce, apart from the testing for E.coli
19 specifically (which, in fact, you started before the
20 Preston incident), any precautionary measures as a result
21 of the Preston outbreak?
22 A. Well, we changed the slaughtering technique by amending
23 our hide specification in that the oesophagus and the bung
24 had to be tied off before the animal was eviserated.
25
26 Q. Do you know -- if you do not, do not trouble to answer the
27 question; tell us that you do not know -- from your
28 experience of slaughterhouses how often it happens that the
29 man at the eviserating table makes a mistake and punctures
30 the gut so that the faeces, or whatever it may be, come on
31 to the meat?
32 A. Statistically, I do not know. I do not know a
33 statistical number.
34
35 Q. Can you offer us an anecdotal guess?
36 A. Yes, I would say that in a day's killing two or three
37 might get cut.
38
39 Q. What is to be done about it when it happens?
40 A. The carcass has to be washed straightaway and the
41 carcass has to be sidetracked off the line until it is
42 absolutely clear.
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: My steer anatomy is not that reliable,
45 Mr. Rampton. I understand "tying off the oesophagus" and
46 did you say "the bung"?
47 A. The bung, B-U-N-G, sir.
48
49 Q. That is the other end?
50 A. That is the other end.
51
52 Q. So you can take everything which is -----
53 A. Everything comes out whole and it cannot leak either
54 way.
55
56 Q. -- without a leakage unless you get a cut?
57 A. Yes, unless you get a cut.
58
59 MR. RAMPTON: Can we just stick for the moment, please,
60 Mr. Walker, with this question of microbiological testing
