Day 111 - 30 Mar 95 - Page 36


     
     1        with high pressure water.
     2
     3   Q.   Was there any other concern about chillers?
     4        A.  Well, my concern definitely was the fact that the
     5        carcasses were not allowed to be chilled properly.
     6
     7   Q.   How many days did they spend in the chillers?
     8        A.  Well, normally carcasses would have to spend two days,
     9        48 hours, in the chillers, to be chilled to a level where
    10        the temperatures reach 7.  It would be very poor practice
    11        by an abattoir to chill the carcasses faster.  It is, of
    12        course, possible.  It would be very poor practice to try
    13        and chill the carcasses faster because you are then faced
    14        with a phenomenon called "cold shortening".
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Called what?
    17        A.  Of the beef.
    18
    19   Q.   Called?
    20        A.  Cold shortening, and this leads to very tough meat, and
    21        I do not think that any customers would remain very long
    22        with an abattoir operator who chilled their beef very
    23        rapidly.
    24
    25   Q.   So that did not happen at Jarretts?
    26        A.  No, it did not happen.  How they tried to fasten the
    27        operations or increase their throughput was to take the
    28        carcasses out after 24 hours in the chillers and load
    29        them.  Here we are concerned with the carcass meat that
    30        went out as carcasses from the plant.  That is why the
    31        temperatures for the carcass meat often were as high as
    32        they were because they were taken out of chillers after 24
    33        hours of chilling.
    34
    35        We tried to solve this problem.  The management was quite
    36        aware of the problem and they admitted that the carcass
    37        temperatures were too high and they understood my
    38        predicament.  It was very difficult for me to allow them to
    39        load carcasses at these temperatures when the statutory
    40        temperature is 7. I would be responsible for the inspecting
    41        veterinary officer at the other end opening a lorry load of
    42        carcasses at 10, 15 degrees of Centigrade.
    43
    44        They were fairly co-operative when I said:  "This situation
    45        cannot carry on", but they felt that their abattoir would
    46        not be profitable unless they could keep up with the
    47        throughput they had.  Basically, there was a shortage of
    48        chiller space for carcasses.
    49
    50   Q.   Before we go any further, those carcasses, whole carcasses 
    51        that were leaving the plant, they were not destined for 
    52        McKey's? 
    53        A.  No.
    54
    55   Q.   That is for export?
    56        A.  Yes.
    57
    58   Q.   But the fundamental problem was they were moving?
    59        A.  Well, they had ----.
    60

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