Day 077 - 25 Jan 95 - Page 54


     
     1
     2   Q.   You remember, I expect, all too well the outbreak of food
     3        poisoning which was attributed to a single McDonald's store
     4        at Friar's Gate in Preston in January 1991?
     5        A.  Yes.
     6
     7   Q.   There will be evidence in this court -- there has been some
     8        already but there will be further evidence -- about what
     9        McDonald's did in consequence of that.  Did you do
    10        anything, your company, in consequence of that incident?
    11        A.  Yes, when we were notified of the incident and the
    12        suspicion of the cause of the incident, I called in Camden
    13        Food Research Organisation to carry out an audit on my
    14        plant and my procedures, again Dr. Jeff Banks.  It was his
    15        department that carried out the audit and they could not
    16        even find any E.coli in my drains or fat traps.
    17
    18   Q.   Did you introduce, apart from the testing for E.coli
    19        specifically (which, in fact, you started before the
    20        Preston incident), any precautionary measures as a result
    21        of the Preston outbreak?
    22        A.  Well, we changed the slaughtering technique by amending
    23        our hide specification in that the oesophagus and the bung
    24        had to be tied off before the animal was eviserated.
    25
    26   Q.   Do you know -- if you do not, do not trouble to answer the
    27        question; tell us that you do not know -- from your
    28        experience of slaughterhouses how often it happens that the
    29        man at the eviserating table makes a mistake and punctures
    30        the gut so that the faeces, or whatever it may be, come on
    31        to the meat?
    32        A.  Statistically, I do not know.  I do not know a
    33        statistical number.
    34
    35   Q.   Can you offer us an anecdotal guess?
    36        A.  Yes, I would say that in a day's killing two or three
    37        might get cut.
    38
    39   Q.   What is to be done about it when it happens?
    40        A.  The carcass has to be washed straightaway and the
    41        carcass has to be sidetracked off the line until it is
    42        absolutely clear.
    43
    44   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  My steer anatomy is not that reliable,
    45        Mr. Rampton.  I understand "tying off the oesophagus" and
    46        did you say "the bung"?
    47        A.  The bung, B-U-N-G, sir.
    48
    49   Q.   That is the other end?
    50        A.  That is the other end. 
    51 
    52   Q.   So you can take everything which is ----- 
    53        A.  Everything comes out whole and it cannot leak either
    54        way.
    55
    56   Q.   -- without a leakage unless you get a cut?
    57        A.  Yes, unless you get a cut.
    58
    59   MR. RAMPTON:  Can we just stick for the moment, please,
    60        Mr. Walker, with this question of microbiological testing

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