Day 079 - 27 Jan 95 - Page 27
1 Q. But you will not know how quick the reaction is until you
2 actually send an Inspector there, will you?
3 A. We will know when the next load that hits the loading
4 dock.
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, I think we have moved away from that now
7 to inspections in the plants?
8 A. Inspections in the abattoirs, sir.
9
10 Q. In the abattoir. It is not difficult to imagine something
11 which may not be up to your specification happening in the
12 abattoir which may not be apparent from the inspection when
13 it arrives at McKey. For instance, 8.2.1.: "Meat must be
14 packed within one hour of boning"; an Inspector, I suppose,
15 might see that he saw something being packed which would
16 have been boned an hour and a half before, but that would
17 not necessarily be detectable when it arrived at Milton
18 Keynes?
19 A. Temperature-wise -- that is one of the monitors, yes,
20 sir.
21
22 Q. No doubt you can imagine things. What you are being asked
23 is what happens if you Inspector sees this happen; you did
24 say something the other day about the Inspector pointing it
25 out to the abattoir and then going back to make a check.
26 But you are being asked now about what actually happens.
27 The first thing to know is whether it is all done by
28 numbers or whether people use their own judgment as to just
29 whether they say something then or go away and write a
30 letter about it or whatever?
31 A. An Inspector, my Lord, in an abattoir, if he saw
32 anything wrong, would say it immediately to the management
33 of the abattoir. He would then go back and confirm it. It
34 would be the subject of conversations back at Milton Keynes
35 in the plant between the buying department, the quality
36 control department, etc. .
37
38 MR. MORRIS: So if, for example, 8.2.1. was not being adhered
39 to, "Meat must be packed within one hour of boning", and it
40 had been brought to the attention of the supplier that they
41 have to do what the specifications say or you would not
42 carry on with the contract -- that is what you said --
43 when, for example, for that kind of thing would that be
44 checked up on?
45 A. It would be checked by the Inspector when he was there
46 on a visit and it would be apparent if there was any
47 temperature rise on the meat on arrival at Milton Keynes.
48
49 Q. If it did not show a temperature rise on the meat, for
50 whatever reason, does that mean you would not be bothered
51 about that specification?
52 A. We bothered about everything. I mean, in practical
53 terms, you cannot -- if you are trying to make me say that
54 I have an Inspector in every boning room during the time
55 when 1,600,000 pounds of beef is boned every week, it is
56 not practical.
57
58 Q. I was not suggesting that you did. I was saying that when
59 you have noticed, one of your inspectors has noticed, a
60 guideline that is not adhered to, for example, that one as
