Day 066 - 14 Dec 94 - Page 10

     
     1        products, if you will.  We leave that responsibility for
     2        them to work with their suppliers.  My responsibility is
     3        for them to understand our procedures, our policies and our
     4        specifications.  Sometimes, many times, I work with them
     5        throughout the supply chain that goes back to the animal
     6        practices.
     7
     8   Q.   Can I take it in stages?  Start with farms, then go to
     9        slaughterhouses, then go to the processing plant in your
    10        mind.  Have you visited farms where animals are reared and
    11        kept?
    12        A.  Yes, I have.
    13
    14   Q.   In all parts of the world?
    15        A.  Yes, I have been Europe, Asia, Latin America and the
    16        US.
    17
    18   Q.   Have you visited slaughterhouses in different parts of the
    19        world?
    20        A.  Yes, I have in the same areas.
    21
    22   Q.   Naturally, I suppose it follows, you will have visited the
    23        direct suppliers, the processors, in all parts of the
    24        world?
    25        A.  That is correct.
    26
    27   Q.   Do you ever encounter in what one might call the less well
    28        developed parts of the world, may be parts of South America
    29        and parts of the Far East and so on, conditions which make
    30        it difficult for your suppliers to comply with your
    31        requirements?
    32        A.  Yes, I do.
    33
    34   Q.   What sort of the things might concern you in those cases?
    35        A.  The first thing which is my main concern as well as the
    36        McDonald's concern is food safety.  It is without a doubt
    37        our No. 1 priority, to the level that our chief senior -- I
    38        am sorry, our senior chairman of the board is our food
    39        safety officer for the company.  So that is our No. 1
    40        priority when I have visit these countries.
    41
    42   Q.   If things are not as you would like them to be, what do you
    43        do about it -- you, McDonald's, I mean -- in the person of
    44        Dr. Gonzales?
    45        A.  We have a long process.  We start by finding out what
    46        suppliers we can work with, to begin with.  Then we select
    47        a supplier.  We work with him sometimes years in advance
    48        before we even start making our products, before we even
    49        open a country.  We work with that supplier.  We develop
    50        that supplier and I could personally work with him. 
    51        I could bring him into some of our processing facilities 
    52        around the world, it could be the United States, it could 
    53        be Europe, until we feel comfortable that they are capable
    54        of producing safe products.  Then we work with them to make
    55        sure that they will also produce quality products.
    56
    57   Q.   Let me take a hypothetical example:  Suppose you found a
    58        satisfactory supplier in some developing country who was
    59        taking his meat from a slaughterhouse which was perhaps out
    60        of date, old fashioned and not as clean and as efficient as