A vital list of outlets which had been supplied with cooked meats from butcher John Barr was written by his wife, not by an environmental health officer, the E-coli inquiry was told yesterday.

The list in Mrs Elaine Barr's handwriting was produced in evidence and North Lanarkshire environmental health officer Douglas Calder, 45, identified it as the one she wrote while in the Wishaw butcher's office on Saturday afternoon, November 23, 1996.

It revealed 14 Lanarkshire outlets - mostly shops, restaurants, caterers and one wholesaler - but did not include any Scotmid stores. Evidence is already before the inquiry that Barr's supplied 85 outlets, including 40 to 45 Scotmid stores throughout central Scotland.

The inquiry into the 21 deaths from E-coli 0157 food poisoning heard evidence from Mrs Barr, who said an environmental health officer - now identified as Mr Calder - wrote a list while she read him names from invoices. She also said she told the officer about Scotmid, and that the list of 14 names was in her handwriting, but she could not remember when or why she wrote it.

An outbreak control team combating the spread of deadly E-coli 0157 food poisoning in November 1996, was desperate to discover who Barr supplied, after cooked meat from his butcher's factory was blamed as the main source of the infection.

The inquiry has been told that seven people in Forth Valley would not have died if a list of outlets had been provided sooner.

Mr Calder, who has been promoted to principal environmental health officer with North Lanarkshire Council, stressed several times during cross-examination by different lawyers that at no time did Mrs Barr mention Scotmid, and he did not write any names on a list at her dictation.

The list was passed on to head of protective services in North Lanarkshire, Mr Graham Bryceland, early on Saturday morning, and various officers were told to contact those named.

Mr Calder said the first he heard about the Scotmid connection was from his superior, Mr Geoffrey Tonner, around 4pm the next day (Sunday November 24), at an environmental health meeting.

Mr Tonner had explained that a Barr delivery driver had told him he supplied a Scotmid store in Bonnybridge with cooked meats.

The inquiry in Motherwell continues.