Day 099 - 08 Mar 95 - Page 22
1 than 25 per cent of frozen samples analysed on a monthly
2 basis may exceed a million per gramme and none", it says,
3 "may exceed 10,000,000 per gramme" which is 10 to the 7,
4 is it not?
5 A. That is right, yes.
6
7 Q. Or, if you like, 10 x 10 to the 6; is that right?
8 A. Yes, you can put it like that, if you wanted to.
9
10 Q. Now, please turn to -- this is beef; I am sorry about it,
11 if you keep both files open at once, it would be very
12 helpful -- tab 2 of your appendices, that is B?
13 A. Yes.
14
15 Q. Here we have something which we know to be McKey's own
16 microbiological guidelines.
17 A. Yes.
18
19 Q. What it says is this in the first two parts: "The raw
20 material microbiological standards listed in the 'McKey
21 Boneless Beef Specification' are as follows: Satisfactory
22 - total colony count less than 500,000"; is that right?
23 A. Yes.
24
25 Q. "Passable - from 500,000 to 5,000,000"?
26 A. Yes.
27
28 Q. "Unsatisfactory - greater than 5,000,000"?
29 A. Yes.
30
31 Q. Do you know why it is that McKey sets a category of
32 "unsatisfactory" at more than 5,000,000 when your
33 specification says that 10,000,000 is the limit?
34 A. Well, obviously McKey's do not want to produce any
35 product that they are going to have to reject, so they work
36 to tighter guidelines. That is the specification on the
37 raw material coming in. If they are sure that the raw
38 material coming in is that low, then they know that through
39 the process there is going to be no multiplication and that
40 they will then meet, more than meet, our specifications.
41
42 Q. Do they also test the finished product, do you know?
43 A. They do, yes.
44
45 Q. We will look at some of their results in a moment as well
46 as at Sun Valley's, Mr. Kenny. Just looking down at the
47 bottom of that page -----
48
49 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Could I just pause there? So their
50 5,000,000, as opposed to your 10,000,000, their
51 microbiological guidelines starts off: "The raw material
52 microbiological standards", but when they test the finished
53 product are they testing to their standards still or on to
54 yours by then?
55 A. They would be on to ours by then. We obviously lay
56 down specifications of McKey's, being our supplier.
57 McKey's then lay down specification of their raw material
58 suppliers.
59
60 MR. RAMPTON: I see. On the basis that there may be some
