Day 294 - 05 Nov 96 - Page 29
1 fact rejected but used for McDonald's hamburgers. They
2 were for educational purposes, he said, this testing,
3 rather than any rejection purpose. On top of this, he
4 claimed that any raw meat supplies arriving over four
5 degrees Centigrade would receive, quote, a cast iron
6 rejection, but after being cross-examined by us extensively
7 -- well, actually he was challenged with a document which
8 showed acceptance of beef arriving over four degrees. He
9 admitted it happened and explained, quote, the quality
10 control officer receiving the meat would make a management
11 decision which was right for the company. So it became
12 apparent that the checks that were being done were
13 educational checks rather than safety checks.
14
15 He did also, of course, claim that they checked every batch
16 end product and it turned out that -- and I accused him of
17 being a liar and there was a big kerfuffle about it. It
18 turned out, we would say, he went off to prove that I was
19 wrong and came back with a document which proved that I was
20 right, that in fact only one burger in every consignment
21 for each company, for example, for McDonald's out of a
22 million burgers produced, one would be tested, I think it
23 was for E.Coli, I cannot remember, but only one burger out
24 of a million was tested, which is not really surprising.
25 So -----
26
27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I would like you to give me, in due course,
28 chapter and verse for that. I know there was lots of
29 questions about how many were tested from a box. And I
30 know you have a point on testing for E.Coli as opposed to
31 other matters, but I certainly do not remember the one in a
32 million.
33
34 MR. MORRIS: If you remember, there was a handwritten log book
35 and it had the name of the company, how many burgers had
36 been produced or something, and it had one test result of
37 one test next to it.
38
39 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not joining issue with whether the
40 E.Coli testing is adequate in itself, because you may have
41 good arguments on that, that really the point of their
42 testing for E.Coli is not so much to make sure that no -- I
43 had better not just say E.Coli, because that is probably
44 everywhere and does not much harm, E.Coli 0157.
45
46 I mean, you may at the end of the day have a good point,
47 that the testing for E.Coli 0157 is educational in this
48 sense, that if it crops up it will cause you to have a look
49 at what further you can do to make sure it does not crop up
50 again, rather than being a test of whether every batch of
51 meat is completely E.Coli free, which is another point
52 which stresses the importance of cooking. But once you
53 start, that is one thing, once you start to say only one
54 burger in a million is tested, it takes on rather another
55 proportion, which is why I have asked you to turn that up,
56 if you can.
57
58 MR. MORRIS: Actually, interestingly enough, on day 77, page 48
59 he did not deny ----
60
