Day 094 - 01 Mar 95 - Page 53
1 company's record on matters such as this?
2 A. We do not do that, as a corporation. Our suppliers,
3 that is their responsibility, our suppliers of patty
4 burgers. This has nothing to do with the speed of the line
5 or with the hygiene conditions of the meat.
6
7 Q. So that is another thing that you leave up to your
8 suppliers?
9 A. That is correct. It has nothing to do with hygiene
10 whatsoever. In fact, it is a totally different agency.
11
12 Q. So do you check up on hygiene records of the companies that
13 you get the meat from?
14 A. Yes, I do.
15
16 Q. The slaughterhouses?
17 A. Yes, I do.
18
19 Q. You do?
20 A. Yes, I do.
21
22 Q. Do all of them have a pristine record for hygiene matters?
23 A. What do you mean by a "pristine record"?
24
25 Q. Have any of them been -----
26 A. Do I consider them to be within acceptable guidelines
27 set up by the major microbiological associations
28 worldwide? Yes, I do. I have never seen any violation.
29
30 Q. So it would be acceptable for them to have some
31 convictions, or something like that, as long as they there
32 were not what you considered to be too many?
33 A. Now we are talking about microbiology? There are some
34 instances that a lot of -- when they call it here, any of
35 the non-conformists, they are not related directly to the
36 safety of a product. It might not be anything close to a
37 line, that the inspector keeps a record of everything that
38 he feels it is not safe. There are a lot of instances in
39 which it can be debated.
40
41 We choose not to fight the regulations. We comply with
42 their requests. When I had experience of working on the
43 plant they will be upset if we did not paint a door that
44 was outside of the processing line. They will cite us for
45 that. Those are very trivial things and they, especially
46 now where they try to justify their position, they use that
47 as a means to say: "Hey, look at me, we are important. We
48 do a lot of things which are very, very trivial".
49
50 Q. So you would accept a supplier that had convictions for
51 something related to hygiene but you felt was something
52 trivial?
53 A. This is not -- these are not convictions.
54
55 Q. Well ---
56 A. When the plant is shut down ----
57
58 Q. -- violations?
59 A. -- the plant, it is as the US DA sees it, an inspector,
60 unfit for human consumption, unsafe, we will not accept
