Day 214 - 01 02 96 - Page 25

 
 

                                                                  DAY 214
 
                                                 DAVID ROBERTS, Examined:
 
 
 
     1   Q.   Would there be any reason to top up a bag of salad or
     2        lettuce?
     3        A.  You would not top up the bags; you would pour the bags
     4        into the bowl.  You would not put anything back into a bag.
     5
     6   Q.   Suppose you had half a bowl of lettuce or salad left at the
     7        end of a day, what would you do with it?
     8        A.  If they had taken too much out of it, just make up more
     9        salads.
    10
    11   Q.   Then business stops; so what happens then?
    12        A.  The salads are made up three times a day, maybe four
    13        times a day.  They just make enough for the couple of hours
    14        that they are going to sell them for.
    15
    16   Q.   If there are salads you have not sold; does that ever
    17        happen?
    18        A.  Salads that would not be sold?
    19
    20   Q.   Yes.
    21        A.  Yes, we do have that.
    22
    23   Q.   What do you do with it?
    24        A.  They are counted, the same as all the other waste.  It
    25        is just discarded into a red bin.  You would always have
    26        waste, because it would be very hard to know exactly how
    27        many you are going to sell.
    28
    29   Q.   Does that include the stuff that is put on -- which is the
    30        one that has lettuce in it?
    31        A.  They all have lettuce in them, all salads.
    32
    33   Q.   Does that come from the same bag, that lettuce?
    34        A.  Yes.
    35
    36   Q.   Forget the mouldy bun, and pass on down, since we have been
    37        talking about waste, to the red bins.  It is the last but
    38        one up from the bottom.  Do you see that?
    39        A.  Yes.
    40
    41   Q.   He says: "Red bins were situated by the wrap and call.  It
    42        was often impossible to throw away a defective item in a
    43        batch without causing chaos in a total mechanised,
    44        streamlined, synchronised batch system with no time
    45        leeway.  It was easier just to keep the line going."
    46
    47        Can I ask you: where, so far as you recollect, in the
    48        restaurant were there red bins?
    49        A.  We had red bins on the counter in the kitchen, which
    50        relates to this; there would be one by the wrap and call 
    51        area where they would wrap the food; there was one by the 
    52        chicken station; one by the quarter grill; and one by the 
    53        regular grill.
    54
    55   Q.   So is there or was there any difficulty about throwing away
    56        a product that was in some sense defective?
    57        A.  The whole idea of placing the bins there was that it
    58        would be within dropping distance, basically.
    59
    60   Q.   How often were the bins checked or logged for waste?
 
                                      25