Day 001 - 28 Jun 94 - Page 42


     
     1        restaurant?  The answer is, no.  The reasons are, first,
              quite apart from any question of social responsibility,
     2        and indeed legal liability for that matter, McDonald's
              have absolutely no interest in poisoning their customers.
     3        If there were frequent outbreaks of food poisoning amongst
              McDonald's customers, the public would stop eating at
     4        McDonald's restaurant over night and the next day
              McDonald's business would be dead.
     5
              In consequence, my Lord, they take the most rigorous steps
     6        -- they must do -- to ensure that the risk of food
              poisoning at their restaurants is kept to the absolute
     7        minimum.  This necessarily entails thorough training of
              staff in hygiene matters and fastidious requirements as to
     8        the handling and cooking of the food in the restaurants.
 
     9        It goes much further than that.  Recognising, as they do,
              that the risk of food poisoning may also occur at
    10        different stages before ever the food gets into the
              restaurants, for example, at the slaughter house or in the
    11        meat processing factory, McDonald's insist on the highest
              standards of quality and hygiene control by their
    12        suppliers.
 
    13        This is not difficult because suppliers, just like
              McDonald's themselves, have no interest at all in
    14        supplying contaminated meat or chicken for public
              consumption.  If they did that, they would not only
    15        quickly lose McDonald's custom (which would be a heavy
              blow to them), they would lose all their other customers
    16        as well.  That is, as I have said before, really rather
              obvious -- I apologise for it -- but it is true.  It is,
    17        therefore, entirely in the suppliers' own interests to
              meet the high standards demanded of them by McDonald's.
    18
              In the consequence, representatives of the suppliers will
    19        be coming to give evidence to your Lordship in detail of
              how this is achieved by their respective companies.
    20        I remind your Lordship who these gentlemen are because
              they do happen to be all male.  There is Dr. Mark Pattison
    21        of Sun Valley poultry which process chickens,  the
              reference is yellow bundle VII/5; Mr. Ashley Bowes of G D
    22        Bowes & Sons who slaughter pigs, he is VII/6; Mr. Tim
              Chambers of Midlands Meat Packers who slaughter cattle, he
    23        is at VII/7 and Mr. David Walker of McKey Food Service
              which processes the meat for McDonald's, he is 7/8.
    24
              My Lord I note in passing which your Lordship knows but
    25        needs to be known to the world at large this, that
              McDonald's do not own any land, apart from restaurants and 
    26        offices, any farms or ranches, any animals, any slaughter 
              houses, any processing plants anywhere in the world. 
    27
              In addition, my Lord, to the witnesses from the suppliers,
    28        your Lordship will hear from Mr. Colin Clarke and
              Dr. Michael Jackson, reference WBVIII/10 and 11.  They
    29        come from the Division of Environmental Health at
              Strathclyde University.  They have made reports
    30        respectively on the hygiene status of a selection of
              McDonald's restaurants in Scotland and on the hygiene

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