Day 175 - 18 Oct 95 - Page 29
1
2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: (To the witness) When you say they do not use
3 the cards, there was a system, was there, whereby a clocked
4 time was put on a card and products were put there -- is
5 that what you mean -- in their wrappings, ready to be
6 served?
7 A. Yes. What happened was, what was supposed to happen
8 was that when food was cooked it was then wrapped within a
9 certain amount of time and then put in a holding bay, a
10 storage bin; and what was then supposed to happen was, a
11 time card was supposed to be slotted on afterwards, and the
12 holding time for nearly everything was ten minutes, except
13 certain other products had longer holding times; and when
14 the minute hand came round to the number that had been
15 slotted on, that food was then supposed to be thrown away.
16 Now, the system would be adhered to in busy times, because
17 the stuff got sold in time, so the holding time was
18 irrelevant, but if the store was quieter, the cards would
19 either not be used -----
20
21 MR. JUSTICE BELL: So a card was put on the bin which had
22 that -----
23 A. Behind that last batch, that is right, to indicate when
24 it should be disposed of.
25
26 Q. You are saying either they ignored the timing or did not
27 put a card up at all?
28 A. Or changed the card; sometimes people changed the
29 cards, because at the end of every shift the waste would be
30 counted and it would be held again the person in charge of
31 that shift if they had a high waste count.
32
33 Q. Then if you turn to Mr. Morris' notes, which should be
34 behind your own statement. When you say, "I used to visit
35 other stores regularly to buy food", do you mean to buy a
36 meal for yourself?
37 A. When I went with other people. I did not really eat
38 McDonald's food much after that.
39
40 Q. Do not worry about that. When you went into another
41 store -----
42 A. I used to always check the cards, because I knew that
43 that rule was very rarely adhered to; and often you would
44 see a card in there which indicated something should have
45 been thrown away 20 minutes ago, and it would still be
46 sitting in there, ready to be sold. As I said in this
47 statement, only a few weeks ago that was the case in a
48 Nottingham store that I went into with a friend.
49
50 Q. Yes. The cards did not actually have clocks on them
51 themselves?
52 A. No. For example, if something was put in -- if a
53 hamburger was in a production bin now, it would have to
54 have a "4" on it, because that is the nearest to ten
55 minutes when it should be disposed of. By the time the
56 minute hand gets to 4, it should be thrown away.
57
58 Q. So a customer, unless they knew the system, would not
59 necessarily appreciate that the significance of the "4" was
60 the 4 on the -----
