Day 129 - 25 May 95 - Page 12
1 (and it is no more than that) is that there must have been
2 a failure to recognise or an ignoring of the fact it was
3 not the bleeper for that piece of apparatus and the light
4 was not flashing for that piece of apparatus?
5 A. It either was not -----
6
7 Q. But it would need both?
8 A. It either -- it might be, for example, when they put
9 the basket down they did not activate the timer, and it
10 might be they were reacting to a timer on the adjacent
11 vat. Again we can only speculate, because we could not
12 find out at the time. But what we have done as well,
13 because we are not happy that even changing the pitch of
14 the buzzer is going to stop this mix up, is we have some
15 work now being carried out on developing an alarm which
16 will tell you if you take the product out early. So that
17 alarm will go off. Again it is technology that does not
18 exist at the moment in a final format. We have it on trial
19 in one store, and we are just about to put it in a few
20 more.
21
22 MS. STEEL: Presumably, that would not work if -- I am just
23 trying it get my head around this. The McNuggets, were
24 they partially cooked?
25 A. From what Mark was able it tell me, they had had very
26 little time in the frying. Now, we are not saying this
27 alarm is a panacea either; it will not be because there are
28 always ways to get around it. So, what we are also doing
29 is, we have instructed our supplier, Sun Valley, to develop
30 a precooked chicken product which will be pathogen-free
31 anyway. Again we are depending on new technology there.
32 They are building a new factory which is due to open this
33 autumn, and that will have new type of cooking equipment
34 put in, which should mean they can precook the chicken for
35 us.
36
37 Q. Then, what, you would reheat it when it was at the store?
38 A. The information we have at the moment, is we would
39 still have to put it through the same cooking process, but
40 it would mean that should somebody make a mistake and, you
41 know, as long as we employ people from time to time they
42 are going to make mistakes, no matter how wonderful the
43 training is, or the procedures are, and when they make
44 mistakes, if there is a chance of there being any pathogens
45 there, then, yes, we are always going to run the risk of
46 putting one of our customers, a chance of eating something
47 that we would rather they did not have. So, that is why we
48 go to these extremes. Again, you can imagine in terms of
49 time, money and hassle involved, we just feel it is
50 worthwhile to do it. We just do not want to serve
51 under-cooked products ever again.
52
53 Q. Of course, it would cost you a lot of money if someone sued
54 you as a result of getting food poisoning?
55 A. Well, I believe it actually would not -- yes, it would
56 cost money, but you are not talking about the same sort of
57 money as we are spending on developing these alarms and
58 that we are spending, or asking Sun Valley to spend, in
59 terms of developing this precooked product.
60
