Day 085 - 08 Feb 95 - Page 29
1 shake machine. I do not know what it was, but it was just
2 a "for instance", and when talking about shake machines, we
3 often disparagingly talk about our competitors who do not
4 clean the machines as often as we do, that that may well be
5 the result if they do not follow the same procedures as
6 ourselves.
7
8 MS. STEEL: I did not actually mean "report" in the sense of a
9 formal report.
10
11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, that is what I was keen to find out.
12
13 MS. STEEL: Right. (To the witness): When you heard about
14 maggots in the shake machines, did you take any steps in
15 regard to what your responsibilities were at that time?
16 A. No, it was just like a story you hear down the pub. It
17 was just one of those things. We know that the procedures
18 were carried out in our restaurants. It is one of the
19 procedures that it is very difficult not to do, to sanitize
20 your shake machine at the end of the night. It is very
21 apparent to the manager who comes in the next day, so you
22 cannot get away with not disassembling and cleaning your
23 shake machine on an evening. The people who come the next
24 day know about it.
25
26 Q. They would if they checked?
27 A. It is self-evident. To take it apart you have to take
28 all the mix out of it, disassemble it completely, so the
29 machine is in pieces when you come in the morning. If the
30 machine still has mix in it when you come in the morning,
31 you know it has not been disassembled the previous night.
32
33 Q. What checks are made in stores to ensure that things like
34 mouldy buns are not used?
35 A. Mouldy buns, one of the easier checks is visual. You
36 can just see that a bun is mouldy so it would not be used.
37
38 Q. Right. But there is pressure to avoid wastage in the
39 stores, is there not?
40 A. Not really pressure to avoid wastage, no.
41
42 Q. Are you aware of instances of mould being scraped off?
43 A. No, I have never heard that.
44
45 Q. What about buns that are dropped on the floor? Are you
46 aware of instances of employees who are under pressure and
47 being shouted out by management, dropping buns on the floor
48 and then using them because they were worried about too
49 much wastage?
50 A. No, it is sort of just against all the sort of
51 principles of managing the restaurants and the people that
52 I work with, to actually contemplate taking a bun off the
53 floor and reusing it again. If a crew member were to do
54 that, the likely outcome is the manager would instruct them
55 very strongly and definitely that that is something they
56 should not do.
57
58 Q. Did you ever get reports of that happening when you were a
59 manager? Did you ever hear of instances like that?
60 A. I heard of instances of new people doing it but also of
