Day 094 - 01 Mar 95 - Page 56
1 A. No, it would not cause me to do that.
2
3 Q. It would still be acceptable then?
4 A. It depends on the microbiological level. One of the
5 things that the government as well as we are pushing is for
6 those kinds of regulations. An inspector cannot see that.
7 If it happens or if in this case if you want any insect, if
8 it happens to be there and then leaves, it could leave
9 bacteria. Under the present system there is no way to tell
10 that. An inspector cannot see that. We are pushing for
11 regulations that will allow us to test the meat and use
12 that as a measure to determine whether or not that we
13 should use that meat.
14
15 Q. If you went into a slaughterhouse, you personally, you were
16 making one of your inspections and you saw cockroaches
17 landing on the meat then, you would not say immediately,
18 "You are out as a supplier"; you would test for the levels
19 of bacteria?
20 A. No. You are totally. You are asking me to speculate.
21 What I would do is find out more about it before I can draw
22 a conclusion. Just give me things to say. To say you can
23 draw a conclusion, I cannot do that. I make decisions based
24 on facts. I make decisions on the corrective actions.
25 I make decisions on their additives. Would I ever hesitate
26 if I see a problem to discontinue a supplier, no. I have
27 discontinued suppliers.
28
29 Q. Who have you discontinued then? Well, for what reasons
30 have you discontinued?
31 A. I discontinued a supplier in Venezuela just recently
32 for not achieving the proper temperature of the meat when
33 it arrives at our processing plant.
34
35 Q. Are there any other ones that have been discontinued? Are
36 there any in the USA that have been discontinued?
37 A. No. Some of the others have discontinued another
38 supplier in Venezuela simply because the attitude.
39
40 Q. Your suppliers, as opposed to the slaughterhouses, the
41 patty suppliers, they do just spot checks on the meat?
42 A. That is correct.
43
44 Q. How long have they been doing those spot checks?
45 A. As long as I can remember.
46
47 Q. Are they checking for any specific sort of bacteria?
48 A. Yes, they are.
49
50 Q. Which ones are they checking for?
51 A. I will pick one supplier. There are variations with
52 the supplier, but normally what they check for is what is
53 called a standard play count which will give you an
54 indication of the total number of micro organisms, a total
55 number. We check for salmonella, that is an indicator
56 organism that will give an indication level of bacteria
57 they may be harmful for humans. We also check for
58 staphylococcus. We check for coli forms.
59
60 Q. So different ones do different tests, do they?
