Day 080 - 30 Jan 95 - Page 13

     
     1        they are actually testing for E.coli monthly?
     2        A.  I would say you have got -----
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  They are not a month apart, obviously, but
     5        there is one in each month?
     6        A.  I cannot answer that because these might just have been
     7        put together in a bundle for the benefit of this .....
     8
     9   Q.   Do you know?
    10        A.  No, I do not.
    11
    12   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I should perhaps explain that these
    13        documents did not come from Mr. Walker or McKey.
    14
    15   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  He said that on the Friday evening.
    16
    17   MR. RAMPTON:  They come from Jarrets.
    18
    19   MR. MORRIS:  On the microbiological limits which you have set
    20        for McKey's for the arrival of meat when you test the meat,
         you said "unsatisfactory" is more than 10 million per
    22        gramme of bacteria; what is the figure for your E.coli
    23        tests?
    24        A.  There is no figure.  It is either present or it is not
    25        present.
    26
    27   Q.   I suppose it is just a question whether it shows up in the
    28        test or not?
    29        A.  Yes.
    30
    31   Q.   How sensitive is the test?  What would it show up?
    32        A.  E.coli testing is changing all the time.  It is one of
    33        the things which science is working on, McKey Food Service
    34        is paying for research, so that we are trying to find
    35        faster and faster ways and better and better ways of
    36        obtaining it.  One of the results of research from Camden
    37        Food Institute we have rejected and we have rejected
    38        because, in a technical term, it calls for concentration
    39        and in a laboratory in a meat works to concentrate a
    40        pathogen is not good technology. So, I mean, the answer to
         your question is that it is being developed all the time.
    42        The whole food scientific world is looking at E.coli.
    43
    44   Q.   You do not happen to know, though, what the sensitivity of
    45        the tests as presently conducted by McKey's are?
    46        A.  No.  I am not technically up to give you an opinion on
    47        that.  I know the agar is used and I know the technology
    48        but  .....
    49
    50   MS. STEEL:  Can you just turn to page 87 of this bundle, 
    51        please?  Have you seen this type of document before? 
    52        A.  No. 
    53
    54   Q.   You have not?
    55        A.  No.
    56
    57   Q.   Do you know the packed temperature that is listed there?
    58        It is in the third column from the right.
    59        A.  Yes.
    60