Day 100 - 09 Mar 95 - Page 37


     
     1        A.  No, I think we first started testing at McKey's for
     2        E.coli or specifically for E.coli 0157 about 1990.
     3
     4   Q.   So if were you testing in 1990, you missed the E.coli that
     5        got through and caused the outbreak of food poisoning in
     6        Preston?
     7
     8   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am not sure that is a question you can
     9        usefully ask him.  You are entitled to say to me that that
    10        must be the consequence of the admitted fact or facts in
    11        relation to Preston.
    12
    13   MS. STEEL:   E.coli is difficult to detect, is it not, is that
    14        fair to say?
    15        A.  0157 is ---
    16
    17   Q.   Yes?
    18        A.  -- difficult to detect, yes.
    19
    20   Q.   If there was a test available for E.coli in the States and
    21        the company was using that test in the States, or was
    22        requiring its suppliers to use that test, would you not
    23        expect that to be something that would be taken up over
    24        here as well?
    25        A.  It is quite often normal that we follow the procedures
    26        that are adopted in the States and, obviously, if it was
    27        written into the McDonald's specification, then we would
    28        follow that.  But, quite honestly, the end product testing
    29        for E.coli 0157 is just a matter of really recording what
    30        the history of your product is like, what the supply is
    31        like.  Short of end product testing every single piece of
    32        meat that leaves the factory, in which case you would not
    33        have any meat leaving the factory -----
    34
    35   Q.   So there is not much you can do?
    36        A.  Well, no, you put controls in place throughout the
    37        system to reduce the risk as far as possible.  Then at the
    38        end of the system you take a sample to monitor how
    39        effective you have been.  We certainly had exactly the same
    40        controls in place, although obviously as we learn new
    41        things we put them into practice, but the same controls
    42        would have been in place before 1990 -- just the end
    43        product testing was not there.
    44
    45   Q.   What controls would there have been to prevent E.coli
    46        getting in before 1990?
    47        A.  The only controls you can have over that is to prevent
    48        contamination in the slaughterhouse.
    49
    50   Q.   What was being done about that in 1990 in respect of E.coli 
    51        0157? 
    52        A.  Well ----- 
    53
    54   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Why do you distinguish that from the others?
    55        I will assume that it is thought that the procedures will
    56        protect against E.coli as well as other pathogenic
    57        organisms.  If you have something you say which should have
    58        been done in the processing, apart from testing, because
    59        you have raised testing and you have now moved on,
    60        I suggest you put it to him.

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