Day 066 - 14 Dec 94 - Page 17

     
     1
     2        I can tell you personally that I spent probably in my time
     3        with McDonald's I have spent an average of, I would say,
     4        six weeks entering not only through Hamburger University
     5        but in courses where I feel I need that training such as
     6        finance, accounting.
     7
     8   Q.   But leave things like finance and management on one side.
     9        What about food safety because that is what we are
    10        discussing at the moment?
    11        A.  In terms of food safety, I go to courses, I participate
    12        in courses.  Our people are trained in food safety around
    13        the world.  For example, last year we trained in
    14        co-ordinating the training of, I would say, 85 per cent of
    15        the beef slaughter houses in the US.  We train, we develop
    16        a process, a training programme, for all of the key people
    17        from the chief executive officer from the major
    18        corporations in the US to the QA managers, so that they
    19        could be trained in food safety and the best practices as
    20        well as the best processors to ensure food safety, so we
         can add that extra security.
    22
    23   Q.   I was going to ask you, you train these people so that they
    24        know what they are doing and what other people should do?
    25        A.  We provide the resources, yes, we do.
    26
    27   Q.   When they have had their training easy enough, I suppose,
    28        in the restaurant, they apply it directly to the operation
    29        in which they are charge of?
    30        A.  That is correct.
    31
    32   Q.   There are procedures in the restaurants, I take it, to
    33        ensure that the food is safe so far as possible?
    34        A.  That is correct.  So, our training programme starts
    35        from the suppliers to distribution centres to the
    36        restaurants and that is around the world.
    37
    38   Q.   I am not going to ask you to describe in detail the
    39        procedures in the restaurants because we have a witness
    40        called Mr. Keith Kenny whose statement I understand you
         have read ---
    42        A.  Yes, I have.
    43
    44   Q.   -- who will describe them in detail.  So far as you are
    45        concerned, I think you tell us that what he says is, as it
    46        were, uniform so far as it can be throughout the world?
    47        A.  Yes, that is correct.
    48
    49   Q.   What I do want to ask you about is this:  A lot of what you
    50        depend on for the safety of your food goes on outside your 
    51        restaurants, goes on in the farms, the slaughterhouses and 
    52        the processing plants which you do not own?  That is right, 
    53        is it not?  How can you ensure that those people who are
    54        not controlled by you comply with the sorts of procedures
    55        which, so far as you are concerned, are needed to ensure
    56        food safety?
    57        A.  OK.  It is a large corporation.  We take advantage of a
    58        purchasing power and we use that purchasing power to
    59        influence our suppliers so that they produce the products,
    60        so that they develop the processes, so that they train the