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
