(Bloomberg) -- Nestle SA Chief Executive Officer Paul Bulcketook the witness stand Wednesday in a harassment lawsuit brought bya former employee who alleges the world’s largest food-makerignored her warnings about product safety.

Bulcke said he could not recall the specifics of a 2006 meetingthat Yasmine Motarjemi, a former food safety director at Nestle,said was key to her complaints. The court hearing was limited tojournalists and pre-approved members of the public at Nestle’srequest.

“There are a lot of meetings and I try to attend all those thatmerit it,” Bulcke told the judge who was questioning him at thecourt in Lausanne, Switzerland, less than 20 kilometers (12 miles)from the foodmaker’s headquarters. “Food safety is something wetake very seriously.”

Motarjemi, who was hired as director of food safety for theSwiss company in 2000, alleges that she was subject to harassmentfrom 2006 onward, after her repeated attempts to flag food safetylapses were ignored, before she was fired in 2010. The case ispotentially embarrassing for the company, which has denied thecharges of harassment and food security lapses, as the popularityof its brands hinge on consumers’ loyalty.

Nestle, which sells brands including Perrier water and Purinacat food, said earlier this year that a recall of its Maggi brandnoodles in India hurt sales in Asia, which led to nine-monthrevenue missing analysts’ estimates. The Maggi recall followed areport by Indian regulators that they found unsafe amounts of leadlevels in a noodle packet. Nestle, which had maintained its noodleswere safe, filed a case in June, challenging the recall. The BombayHigh Court later overturned the ban on Maggi noodles, and orderedtests that showed the noodles were safe.

Motarjemi, who joined Nestle from the World Health Organization,is seeking 2 million Swiss francs ($2 million) in compensation tocover her legal and medical costs, and 50% of 10 years of lostearnings, she said. She said she was subject to “psychologicalharassment” by her superiors for years.

In court, Bulcke rejected Motarjemi’s argument and pointed tothe typical 25-year tenure of Nestle employees — and his own36 years at the company — as evidence that people likedworking there.

“I reject this notion that there is a culture of fear atNestle,” Bulcke told the judge. “Above all, the respect of theperson is what counts at Nestle.”

Bulcke wrapped up his testimony in about 40 minutes, and wasfollowed by Jean-Marc Duvoisin, the former head of human resourcesand now chief of its Nespresso business. Duvoisin said he neverwitnessed any harassment of Motarjemi and that although there maybeen “irritations” between her and her boss, the relationship wasprofessional.

“There was always an open and objective dialogue between Ms.Motarjemi and Mr. Stalder,” Duvoisin said, referring to RolandStalder, Nestle’s director of food quality at the time.

Bulcke and Duvoisin were the first two of four senior executivesgiving testimony Wednesday in the trial which began in earlyDecember.

--With assistance from Corinne Gretler.

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