Day 125 - 12 May 95 - Page 10
1 would be to look and see if there is anything more you can
2 do to be sure, or even more sure, than you already were,
3 that it did not happen to you. That is really what you are
4 saying?
5 A. That is correct, my Lord.
6
7 MS. STEEL: I do not think I was trying to negate that,
8 I think. (To the witness): The point is, though, that you
9 had had an incident with the same type of food poisoning
10 organism in McDonald's in the early 1980s. 1982, I think
11 it was?
12 A. I believe there may have been an isolated case.
13
14 Q. I think there were about 68, at least 68, people affected
15 in Michigan and Oregon who suffered E.coli 0157: H food
16 poisoning as a result of eating McDonald's burgers?
17 A. I am not certain of that number. I do not know where
18 you get your information. That is certainly something that
19 can be looked into, but I am not prepared to say that that
20 is true. I cannot tell you that that is true.
21
22 Q. I think it is, by and large, accepted by Mr. George Rummel,
23 whom, I presume, you know?
24 A. Yes, I do.
25
26 Q. You are aware of incident, whether or not you are aware of
27 how many people it affected?
28 A. I know there was some incident in Michigan, yes.
29
30 Q. The steps you took after the Jack-in-the-box incident, why
31 did you not take those steps after the incident that
32 involved McDonald's in 1982?
33 A. Well, you are presuming that we did not. Again I want
34 to say that we have continued to be vigilant in looking at
35 our Operations procedures, and when situations occur, we
36 always take a step back and see how we can do things
37 differently, better, to better serve our customer, and
38 safeguard the safety of our employees and customers. It
39 just makes good sense to do so. So I would -----
40
41 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause there a moment. I think you
42 should find out how much (and it sounds to me as if it may
43 be very little) Mr. Beavers knows, because if he does not
44 know much about it, it is a bit difficult to ask him about
45 why one did not do this.
46
47 MS. STEEL: Do you know what action the Company took after the
48 incident of people suffering food poisoning after eating
49 McDonald's products in 1982?
50 A. I know we reviewed all of our operations and procedures
51 and the preparation of all meat products; reviewed the
52 sanitation procedures of our employees through, in various
53 ways. We made sure that various pieces of sanitary
54 equipment were maintained in our restaurants. So, during
55 the travel path of a supervisor, the store manager, the
56 soap dispensers, towel dispensers near sinks and what-not,
57 would check to make sure they were properly maintained.
58 The towels, grill towels that were used were kept in an
59 antimicrobial wash. So, there were just a number of
60 procedures, additional procedures, that were looked at.
