Day 244 - 03 May 96 - Page 11

     
     1        with the Chief Medical Officer's advice in 1991 that beef
     2        burgers should be cooked until the juices run clear and
     3        there are no pink bits inside.
     4
     5        However, it must be stressed that the burgers used in the
     6        study contained only beef and that burgers containing other
     7        ingredients" -- that is not relevant to McDonald's.
     8
     9        Then further down that paragraph at 6.43:
    10
    11        "For example, a recent study has found that the colour of
    12        the meat in beef burgers is not always a reliable indicator
    13        of safe cooking.  It should be stressed that this advice is
    14        meant to apply only to minced meat products, such as beef
    15        burgers, and is not intended to apply to whole joints of
    16        meat as BTEC would not be expected to be present in the
    17        centre of intact joints of meat."
    18
    19   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  We have been through all this before.
    20
    MR. MORRIS:  This would all back up the points you have already
    22        made?
    23
    24   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It has not been challenged.
    25
    26   MR. MORRIS:  But in terms of the 70 degrees for 2 minutes, you
    27        would accept that as being the minimum?
    28        A.  On the basis of that report, yes, which is sufficiently
    29        authoritative to be taken as the standard.
    30
    31   Q.   Right.
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What conclusion am I to draw from that?
    34
    35   MR. MORRIS:  If the cooking ----
    36
    37   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The one thing I noted last time was that Dr.
    38        North did not criticise McDonald's cooking temperatures or
    39        times if they were adhered to.
    40
    MR. MORRIS: (To the witness): Would you accept or not accept
    42        that if the cooking time was less than 2 minutes, what
    43        would happen about the temperature you would expect?
    44
    45   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It would have to be higher.  I really do not
    46        need Dr. North to tell me that.
    47
    48   MR. MORRIS:  Right.
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  If you have some treasure in there I do not 
    51        want to deter you from digging it out, but none of this is 
    52        in dispute. 
    53
    54   MR. MORRIS:  It should be pointed out that McDonald's do not
    55        cook their burgers for 2 minutes at 70 degrees.
    56
    57   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No.  Dr. North has never made any criticism
    58        of the cooking times or temperatures of McDonald's.
    59
    60   MR. MORRIS:  He has made it now because he is accepting this