Day 080 - 30 Jan 95 - Page 15
1 it is something that they would do. Is it something that
2 they do do now when they make their inspections?
3 A. If an inspector is in an abattoir boning room when a
4 load is being loaded out for McKey Food Service, I would
5 expect and I am sure that inspector would check the
6 temperature of the lorry and the cleanliness of the lorry
7 if he was there at the same time as the truck was being
8 loaded.
9
10 Q. Would he check the pack temperatures as well?
11 A. Yes, he would. All the inspectors carry meat
12 thermometers with them at all times.
13
14 Q. Can you turn to page 67, please? Are these the type of
15 reports that you would ask to see when you were doing an
16 audit as well?
17 A. No.
18
19 Q. You would not ask to see these?
20 A. No. This is, obviously, an internal report where the
21 counts have been taken and samples have been taken, I would
22 think for an EEC inspection where walls, cutting blocks,
23 everything has been checked -- you know, a full swab, what
24 we call a "contact plate swab test" of the abattoir.
25
26 Q. There seem to be a quite a lot of Es there; would that be
27 something that would concern you?
28 A. I have just said, I do not know. I mean, this report
29 is nothing to do with us.
30
31 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It does not mean anything to you at all, the
32 grades?
33 A. No, sir.
34
35 MS. STEEL: So you have not made any checks at all on what the
36 kind of hygiene conditions? You do not ask for reports on
37 that from your suppliers?
38 A. No, because if a supplier is EEC approved and if all
39 the meat arrives with a veterinary certificate, it is the
40 vet who is responsible for that. We cannot be responsible
41 in a practical situation for everything in the whole food
42 chain. We can only set the best standards we can that are
43 available to us. There is a physical limit to what you can
44 check.
45
46 Q. You could ask to see copies of reports like this, could you
47 not?
48 A. My Group Technical Manager, for all I know, has asked
49 to see these reports, but I am not privy to that knowledge
50 and I am not going to stand here and say that we asked for
51 them if I do not know we asked for them. It is possible,
52 it is probable that my technical man would ask to see them.
53
54 Q. It is not something that you consider important enough to
55 give a directive that they should ask for them?
56 A. No, because there is no limit to how much paper work my
57 chaps would have to look at -- all the abattoirs, all the
58 boning rooms we use and, in any case, as long as the meat
59 is the right standard, that is the important point.
60
