Day 085 - 08 Feb 95 - Page 51
1 temperature was wrong, then that could have health
2 implications, food safety implications?
3 A. If it was not cooking at the right temperature it could
4 have, yes.
5
6 Q. If you turn to Appendix 4, the Quality Reference Guide, is
7 a new version of this published every year?
8 A. It is published every year. We may amend it even more
9 often than that. I think last year we probably had two
10 versions, but it comes to reprint if there is anything
11 substantial. We will change it. It is all on computer
12 with a printer, so it is quite easy to update it.
13
14 Q. So the guide for 1990, say, would not necessarily be the
15 guide that was in place for the whole of 1990?
16 A. It is my belief that at that point in time that it was
17 published on an annual basis. Now I have been responsible
18 for it we will put changes through on a reprint. I think
19 technology has helped us do that.
20
21 Q. Do you know when in 1991 the Quality Reference Guide was
22 published for 1991, the one at Appendix 5?
23 A. I will not know unless it says somewhere along there,
24 but I can tell you that you would normally find the new
25 Quality Reference coming out towards the beginning of the
26 year.
27
28 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I hesitate to interrupt, but I really
29 cannot bear speculation about verifiable matters of
30 fact. I do not know what the page number is -- 52, we have
31 April 1991 written on it which is after the documents which
32 are to be found at tab 18 of pink file 8B.
33
34 MS. STEEL: You have adopted Mr. Wignall's statement?
35 A. Yes.
36
37 Q. He says in paragraph 10 which is on page 54 that:
38 "Following the Preston incident we increased cooking times
39 of the beef products. However, it is fair to point out
40 that, I believe, that we reviewed the cooking times for
41 beef and other products from time to time. To illustrate
42 this I attach as Appendix 4 and 5 a copy of the Quality
43 Reference Guide booklet in use in restaurants in the years
44 1990 and 1991 respectively. It can be seen on page 3 of
45 each of the booklets that from 1990 to 1991 the recommended
46 cooking time for 10-1 patties and quarter pounder patties
47 was increased by two and six seconds respectively.
48 Following the Preston incident the cooking times were
49 lengthened still further." The second guide, the one that
50 is published in April 1991, was actually after the Preston
51 incident, was it not?
52 A. The Preston incident was in January 1991, I believe,
53 was it not?
54
55 Q. Yes.
56 A. So if the guide was published in April 1991 that would
57 be accurate.
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do we have the guide to show us that? We
60 have got the tabs E and F which show the two and six-second
