Day 098 - 07 Mar 95 - Page 17
1 remembering we have not really established a full
2 Salmonella testing regime as yet.
3
4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If he cannot really say, whatever figure he
5 gives you I really cannot attach any weight to.
6 A. Suffice to say that obviously when we dispatch products
7 to our customers, when they are doing the various things
8 with it, they do tests on it and I cannot remember -- there
9 was one instance a few years ago or some months ago in
10 France where somebody said they found I think it was
11 Salmonella on a carcass but, in my experience, that is the
12 only time.
13
14 MR. MORRIS: How long does the TVC count take to come through?
15 How long does that take? How many days does that take?
16 A. 48 hours.
17
18 Q. If you find something over the 5,000,000 bacteria per
19 gramme, that is a McKey specification, is it?
20 A. That is, I believe, over 5,000,000 is -----
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Five by 10 to the power of six is in some
23 categories anyway.
24
25 MR. MORRIS: If that meat has already gone through, what do you
26 do? Do you rely on McKeys basically for testing to sort
27 that out?
28 A. No, I mean McKeys would carry out the test. I am sure
29 they would inform us if they had a result like that. I am
30 just saying that a count of that magnitude, we would not
31 experience that often.
32
33 Q. You would not experience that. You said it would be
34 rejected. So, if you found it over 5,000,000, what would
35 you do in one of your tests?
36 A. If we find it over 5,000,000?
37
38 Q. I am just trying to see what the situation is.
39 A. It is difficult to -----
40
41 Q. Who would it be rejected? Who would do it?
42 A. If we deemed for any reason that that product was
43 outside the customer's specification, whoever was having
44 it, we would say: "What are we going to do with this meat
45 now?" We could do a number of different things.
46
47 Q. If you did not have the results for two days, or something,
48 and the meat had already gone through -----
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: All this is on the assumption, which may or
51 may not be justified, because he has said it stays in the
52 box for three days, that the meat is actually released when
53 you know that part of that batch or carcass, or however you
54 choose most helpfully to describe it, has been sampled.
55 That may be so but the first step is, if you have taken a
56 sample from your sirloin, might that sirloin go out to a
57 customer before you have had the result of the test?
58 A. Yes.
59
60 Q. If that happens, Mr. Morris is asking you to suppose that
