Day 078 - 26 Jan 95 - Page 09

     
     1
     2   Q.   Can you give us a rough idea?
     3        A.  No, I cannot give you a rough idea.
     4
     5   Q.   More than a year?
     6        A.  I just said, I cannot give you a rough idea.  If I am
     7        going to answer you, I will answer you with facts.
     8
     9   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Can you remember whether that is was a
    10        supplier which never met the standards or began to lapse?
    11        A.  Began to lapse, sir.
    12
    13   Q.   And thereafter was dispensed with?
    14        A.  Yes, it began to lapse because the ownership changed.
    15
    16   MS. STEEL:   Do you feel that the McKey system of this testing,
    17        the hygiene testing, is infallible?
    18        A.  I do not think that any scientific testing is
    19        infallible, but I think the McKey system, in my experience
    20        internationally and nationally, is the best system that is
         available in the meat industry.
    22
    23   Q.   Yet problems can still happen, can they not?
    24        A.  Yes, but that is what the test does; it highlights the
    25        problem and allows us to take remedial action.
    26
    27   Q.   The tests have not always highlighted the problem, though,
    28        have they?
    29        A.  I think they have.
    30
    31   Q.   There was an outbreak of food poisoning in Preston in
    32        January 1991, was there not, centred on McDonald's store in
    33        Friar Gate in Preston that has been admitted by the
    34        Plaintiffs?
    35        A.  There was an outbreak of E.coli infection in Preston in
    36        1991, yes.
    37
    38   Q.   You denied any responsibility for the outbreak at the time,
    39        I believe?
    40        A.  I said yesterday in my evidence that I called in Camden
         Research and they did an audit on my systems and my plant,
    42        and I said that they could find no evidence of E.coli even
    43        in my drains and fat traps.  That is what I said.
    44
    45   Q.   I will come back to that.  The edition says:  "In January
    46        1991 a number of people suffered food poisoning after
    47        eating burgers from McDonald's in Friar Gate, Preston.
    48        Some had severe medical problems requiring
    49        hospitalisation.    McDonald's refused to admit
    50        responsibility despite a Public Health Laboratory Official 
    51        report into the incident identifying the company which 
    52        concluded that 'the problem may not have been completely 
    53        restricted to that single branch or to a single hamburger
    54        chain'.  Survivors of the outbreak only received some
    55        compensation without admission of liability" that is by
    56        McDonald's, "after strenuous and lengthy effort".  They
    57        have now admitted that?
    58        A.  They have not admitted it was in the meat.
    59
    60   Q.   One of the other people who suffered food poisoning was