Day 100 - 09 Mar 95 - Page 34
1 Q. Was the increase in cooking time that you mentioned in 1993
2 connected to the Jack-in-the-box incident?
3 A. No, that was not. That was only an increase on quarter
4 pounder meat. There was no increase on regular meat
5 patties. That was the result of a series of audits that
6 were implemented several years earlier, nationwide audits.
7 We found from those audits that the majority of restaurants
8 were cooking their quarter pounders towards the top end of
9 the existing range. The instruction has always been to
10 cook to an internal temperature of 70 degrees Centigrade,
11 and then we offered a suggested range for the store
12 managers to achieve that. If you go outside that range,
13 then there could well be other issues that you need to
14 address. We found that most restaurants were actually look
15 towards the end of the suggested range so we just shifted
16 the range up.
17
18 MR. JUSTICE BELL: When you say "the end" do you mean the top
19 end?
20 A. The top end, yes.
21
22 MS. STEEL: They were cooking to those temperatures, presumably,
23 because they found they needed to cook to those
24 temperatures in order to reach -- sorry, to those times in
25 order to reach the internal temperature specified?
26 A. To be 100 per cent confident of achieving those
27 temperatures, they were erring on the side of safety, yes.
28
29 Q. Has there been a problem with failed elements in the
30 electric fryers for the McNuggets?
31 A. I do not know if there has been a problem with them at
32 all. It is something that could cause a problem if it were
33 to happen.
34
35 Q. You are aware of that happening?
36 A. Well, I know we introduced a recovery temperature test
37 to check in case of failure, but I do not know if that was
38 in response to a problem or not. You would have to speak
39 to somebody in our equipment department.
40
41 Q. Can you just explain what a recovery temperature test is?
42 A. Yes, we cook at set temperatures. We have the oil at
43 set temperature. When you put a frozen product into the
44 vat, obviously the temperature drops slightly. It takes a
45 period of time before it recovers back up to the set
46 temperature. That is what we call the recovery time.
47
48 Q. If there is a faulty element, then the recovery time takes
49 a lot longer?
50 A. That is right.
51
52 Q. How often were recovery tests being done?
53 A. You are a bit outside my field of expertise. I am
54 sorry, I cannot answer that without checking.
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Have you got a suggestion to make with regard
57 to that?
58
59 MS. STEEL: No, I was just going to ask something else.
60 (To the witness): Is it right that on all fryers, apart
