Day 295 - 06 Nov 96 - Page 12
1 So it looks like Timothy Chambers would know the reality,
2 I presume.
3
4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, let us suppose that; where does that
5 take me?
6
7 MR. MORRIS: I am not quite sure really. It is not very often
8 anyway.
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If they visited all the abattoirs at the
11 same frequency, they would only get round every five years,
12 if it was once a month.
13
14 MR. MORRIS: I know.
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What do you want me to make of that?
17
18 MR. MORRIS: I am not quite sure. You can make of it what you
19 like, but I think the point is that visiting twice a year
20 is hardly any kind of effective monitoring. It would be
21 such a unusual event that no doubt the supplier would put
22 on a really good show, red carpet treatment.
23
24 McDonald's is relying on McKeys entirely to monitor what
25 happens at the next stage, and if their largest abattoir is
26 only being visited twice a year, then it looks like any
27 hands-on monitoring is very, very limited and no doubt they
28 are relying on the occasional form being filled in and the
29 educational testing of the meat when it arrives, inadequate
30 as it is.
31
32 Then on page 43, the fourth reference down, under
33 cross-examination Mr. Walker said that McKey only requires
34 suppliers to do random tests for E.Coli about once or twice
35 a week, which would have virtually no value whatsoever, so
36 far as I can see.
37
38 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Was that a reference just to E.Coli generally
39 or E.Coli 0157H?
40
41 MR. MORRIS: I think it is 0157H, because that became a
42 specification after the Preston incident, as far as I can
43 recall. I have got some of McKeys documents and it
44 includes a test for E.Coli 0157H. I am going to look at
45 them in a minute, because it also relates to the finished
46 product testing.
47
48 Then page 44. Mr. Walker says -- this is the last but one
49 reference: "Since testing for E.Coli 0157H began, they had
50 two incidents of E.Coli, one detected by McKey and the
51 other by the supplier", which is, despite the inadequate
52 testing, they had two incidences in a five year period.
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause a moment. (Pause) Where should
55 I go from there?
56
57 MR. MORRIS: Well, the point is that the testing is clearly
58 completely inadequate, but despite that they still manage
59 to find two positive results, that is minimum, that he was
60 willing to admit.
