Day 089 - 15 Feb 95 - Page 69
1 incidence, live birds, which has been through a process
2 which so far as you have described it prevents
3 proliferation of salmonella, allowing for contaminations
4 along the way, if I take that piece of raw chicken and I do
5 not cook it properly so that it is partly raw or
6 under-cooked when I eat it, what sort of a risk of food
7 poisoning do you think that I am exposing myself to?
8 A. The risk depends on the number of organisms.
9
10 Q. Well, I know that.
11 A. What I am suggesting is that the number of organisms is
12 probably fairly low at the end of our process even though
13 we are saying that on the face of it is quite a high
14 contamination rate. The number of organisms is fairly low
15 and it depends entirely on how that chicken after it is
16 bought is stored and handled. If it is incorrectly cooked
17 so that food poisoning organisms have not been killed, and
18 say it is a hot summer's day with a barbecue and the
19 portions are left out for 46 hours, as will often happen in
20 a barbecue party, that would be the ideal conditions for
21 organisms to multiply and they would multiply very, very
22 quickly in those sorts of circumstances.
23
24 Q. Did you also read the report of Professor Jackson that he
25 made after he had been to Sun Valley?
26 A. Yes, I have read that.
27
28 Q. Were you there when he went there?
29 A. No, I was not.
30
31 Q. Is there anything in his report about Sun Valley (we may be
32 surprised if there is) with which you would disagree?
33 A. No, I am quite happy with it.
34
35 Q. Then finally on food safety, Dr. Pattison, -- no, two
36 things. First of all, the microbiological tests that you
37 do are of what kind? I do not want you to go through the
38 science of it, but what is the nature of it?
39 A. The tests for bacteria involve taking a 25 gramme
40 sample of the product and mashing that up and plating it
41 out on to what is called an agar plate with is an
42 artificial nutrient medium to grow bacteria.
43
44 Q. Did you devise that test?
45 A. No, this is standard practice within the industry.
46
47 Q. Are your procedures in this regard approved?
48 A. Yes, the laboratory is audited by the Camden Food
49 Research Association who give us a certificate of
50 accreditation each year to carry out microbiological tests.
51
52 Q. If you have still have the pink file 8 in front of you,
53 could you turn back a tab from 9 to 8, again I am not going
54 to go through these documents, the Defendants can if they
55 want during the course of the next two days. Just tell us
56 briefly what they are. What is the first sheet we see
57 there?
58 A. I am afraid it is very, very difficult to read.
59
60 Q. It is terrible. I cannot read it.
