Day 125 - 12 May 95 - Page 12


     
     1        single-sided method of cooking.
     2
     3   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You mean, when you cook patties on the grill,
     4        the temperature of the grill must drop a little as it
     5        transfers heat, to the patties?
     6        A.  That is correct, my Lord.
     7
     8   Q.   Then it will pick up -----
     9        A.  The technical term is -----
    10
    11   Q.   Patties are taken off.  You say, that happens to a lesser
    12        degree with the two-sided grill; is that what you are
    13        saying?
    14        A.  Yes, the recoverability characteristic of the two-sided
    15        grill is superior to the single-sided cooking method.
    16
    17   MR. MORRIS:  Mike Epsey, former Head of the Department of
    18        Agriculture -- is it Epsey or Espey?
    19        A.  Yes.  Mike Espey, yes, he is a former Congressman.
    20
    21   Q.   Am I right, he was Head of the Department of Agriculture?
    22        A.  That is correct.
    23
    24   Q.   After the Jack-in-the-Box incident, what did he do as a
    25        response, in terms of public safety matters?
    26        A.  I do not know if I am -- if I know all of the various
    27        things that he did, but I do know that he expressed the
    28        concern of the current administration for some of the
    29        practices in the industry, practices regarding fish and
    30        foul, fish/foul and other products; and publicly said that
    31        some of the techniques and practices were rather antiquated
    32        and had suggested that the industry needed to be reviewed
    33        and standards needed to be upgraded, as I recall.  That is
    34        a generalisation of what I recall.
    35
    36   Q.   But in terms of the fast-food industry, is it not a fact
    37        that he also was proposing -- I thought it was a regulation
    38        or a law, but there was a proposal -- to set a minimum
    39        internal temperature for the fast-food industry for burger
    40        cooking; is that correct?
    41        A.  I do not know if that is correct, Mr. Morris.  I do not
    42        know if that is correct.
    43
    44   Q.   Do you remember he was saying something about internal
    45        temperatures?
    46        A.  He, obviously, was concerned.  He expressed concern
    47        over the unfortunate death of some of the young people that
    48        had visited Jack-in-the-Box.  He, as well as everyone else,
    49        did not want to see that happen again.
    50 
    51   Q.   One of the concerns was the internal temperatures that the 
    52        burgers were being cooked at, that the burgers reached when 
    53        they came out of the grill?
    54        A.  There was a concern, so that if the internal
    55        temperature was reached then E.coli 0157 would be killed,
    56        and he would not have, you know, he would not have a
    57        problem.
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  There must have been a concern about internal
    60        temperatures, in other words, because otherwise the tragedy

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