Day 094 - 01 Mar 95 - Page 61


     
     1        job, that is what they will be doing.  I am very surprised
     2        they make those kinds of statements.  I know what they are
     3        doing with the streamline inspection.  They are very scared
     4        that they are going to lose jobs.  Those people are not
     5        going to find a job immediately.  I see their concerns.
     6        They want more inspection.  They think that inspection is
     7        the way to go.  We have proven to the United States
     8        Department of Agriculture there is plenty of evidence to
     9        support that inspection is not the way to prevented
    10        diseases or any food safely illnesses.
    11
    12   Q.   Is the way to check whether the companies are actually
    13        preventing diseases and bacteria from getting through?
    14        A.  Absolutely.  That is when the HACCP analysis and
    15        critical control point system comes into place.  The
    16        emphasis of inspection all the countries it is to find the
    17        problem and then do something about it.  If they find
    18        particular contamination then they remove it.  That is
    19        their approach.  The entire approach of HACCP, to say just
    20        for short, is to prevent that from happening in the first
    21        place.  If you do that it is economically a lot better. You
    22        learn a whole lot more about the process, therefore you can
    23        prevent it to a higher degree.  There is a lot of evidence
    24        around the world, it is recognised that it is the best
    25        system there is to prevent or to ensure food safety.
    26
    27   Q.   Do you know some of the beef that you buy from your
    28        suppliers, whether that comes from the Excel
    29        slaughterhouses in Texas?
    30        A.  I do not know if they specifically come from there.
    31        I have seen Excel containers in our meat plants.
    32
    33   Q.   Can you just read the paragraph that starts on the third
    34        line of page 39?
    35        A.  The one that starts "In a letter"?
    36
    37   Q.   Yes, that is right.
    38        A.  Can you read me underneath the big statement ----
    39
    40   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Just put a question about it.
    41
    42   THE WITNESS:  I have read it.
    43
    44   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Ask him if he has experience of whatever it
    45        is you want to put to him.
    46
    47   MS. STEEL:  Have you heard about that?
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  About what?
    50 
    51   MS. STEEL:   The incident that is related there.  It is a letter 
    52        to the Senate Appropriations Committee. 
    53        A.  No, I have not.
    54
    55   Q.   You have not heard about that?
    56        A.  No.
    57
    58   Q.   Have you heard of an incident where inspectors, be they
    59        company inspectors or USDA inspectors, if they fail the
    60        meat they are then intimidated by other people at the

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