Day 086 - 09 Feb 95 - Page 65


     
     1        although I am not 100 per cent sure, it may be in some of
     2        the attachments I have read through, but we could certainly
     3        get hold of that.
     4
     5   Q.   If someone asked you, if Mr. Preston, the President, came
     6        to you and said, "I want to know exactly how much meat is
     7        arriving at our back door that is not acceptable and being
     8        rejected", is that something you could go to straightaway
     9        and say, "I can check that straightaway"?  You would not
    10        have to phone every store in the country just to find out?
    11        A.  There would be no problem.  It could be done within
    12        minutes.
    13
    14   Q.   That would apply to any other deliveries, would it, as well
    15        such as salad?
    16        A.  Yes, chilled and frozen.
    17
    18   Q.   Do you know what percentage of food deliveries would be
    19        rejected on average over a year, what percentage?
    20        A.  No, but I could find out very quickly from Golden West
    21        and McKey what had been returned back to them.  It is also
    22        informed to the QA Department if a product arrives at the
    23        store that is not right.  It is another of the critical
    24        control points throughout the whole chain.
    25
    26   Q.   Do you know what the most commonest reasons for rejection
    27        are, just from your memory or experience?
    28        A.  Yes, one of them is lettuce that is rejected because it
    29        is watery.  This was because sometimes the lorries are
    30        between -- some of it is frozen, some of it is chilled, and
    31        if you put the lettuce close to the freezer within the
    32        chilled compartment it can go too cold and then cause the
    33        lettuce to deteriorate.  So watery lettuce, lettuce not up
    34        to best condition, is the most common one.
    35
    36   Q.   What about raw meat products, meat, chicken?
    37        A.  That is rare.  From a frozen warehouse again there are
    38        checks within Golden West before it goes on, temperature
    39        checks on to a lorry, you have the temperature dial with a
    40        graph printout on the lorry so the driver can make sure it
    41        is at the right temperature.  Then the next check is as a
    42        back door to make sure it is the right temperature.  The
    43        meat and chicken and fish products are normally fine.  If
    44        anything, what we have is nothing at all or maybe a
    45        catastrophic failure so that the whole truck breaks down or
    46        something like that, so everything is thrown away.
    47
    48   Q.   But when your staff check, well, the crew or whatever
    49        checks the temperature of the lorry when it arrives -- is
    50        that correct? 
    51        A.  Yes.  I know for a fact you have to do the probe test 
    52        with the pyrometer between the products, and I believe we 
    53        record what temperature is on the truck or either the truck
    54        driver records it on his form.
    55
    56   Q.   The staff from the store, do they check or verify or even
    57        know what the temperature in the truck is when it arrives?
    58        Is that automatically passed on?  What I am saying is, when
    59        the truck arrives do you know what the temperature of the
    60        truck is?

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