Day 295 - 06 Nov 96 - Page 25
1
2 And the reason given here: Question - "Why do we not check
3 grill calibration on a daily basis?" Answer - "Grill
4 calibration should be checked weekly, according to the
5 PMC". I don't know what the PMC is. "From a product
6 safety point of view, the critical control point is that
7 the meat achieves an internal temperature of 70 degrees
8 Celsius. Checking daily grill calibration does not ensure
9 this."
10
11 Then it says it is better to take the internal temperature
12 with a thermometer. The point was the daily grill
13 calibration was the only attempt by McDonald's to guarantee
14 that minimum temperature up until the introduction of the
15 internal temperature testing, so that is an admission from
16 John Atherton that they could not ensure, up until the
17 thermometer testing, that the beef products were achieving
18 70 degrees.
19
20 Do not forget, Colin Clarke's analysis of temperatures were
21 after the thermometer system was brought in, although of
22 course he said they were still not reaching the minimum
23 temperatures that he would recommend.
24
25 So all I can say there is, here is a fundamental flaw in
26 this very fragile system and it is a flaw that is admitted
27 at the highest level. That flaw would have been compounded
28 when the temperature to be attained was less or the times
29 for cooking were less, because it would have been worse
30 than fragile, the system; it would have been inadequate.
31
32 You said at the time that this came up, the George Rummel
33 statement about the 1982 outbreak in the USA, you were
34 considering to be an admission at the time when we brought
35 it up. We were arguing effectively he is admitting
36 responsibility and you said you would take it as an
37 admission.
38
39 That was a paragraph where 47 people, mostly in Michigan
40 and Oregon, in 1982 were found to be infected with a
41 previously unknown strain of E.Coli. The Centre for
42 Disease Control formed a statistical analysis of the
43 outbreak and concluded that its research inferred a
44 numerical correlation between the outbreak and McDonald's.
45 McDonald's paid the medical bills and related claims of
46 these individuals as a means of settling the matter to
47 everyone's satisfaction. There was never an admission of
48 liability on McDonald's part.
49
50 We disclosed the actual report from the CDC and I think it
51 was in that context where you were taking it as an
52 admission and it was not necessary to investigate the
53 details of that report or argue over them, which saved
54 court time.
55
56 I am sort of a little bit disorganised here, but I am
57 getting through it quite fast. If I can just sit down?
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. (Pause)
60
