Day 112 - 31 Mar 95 - Page 28
1 ceiling or from the pipes that run above next to the beef
2 line which is marked there.
3
4 Q. So what do you think it is that the limited carcass washing
5 which you say occurs at that stage is likely to disguise
6 from the expert eye of a vet or a meat inspector?
7 A. It is likely to disguise, the most important factor is
8 the faecal contamination which happens at this point,
9 because at evisceration point, which is the gut removal, as
10 I mentioned yesterday, the oesophagus often bursts open in
11 spite of being tied. Also, if there has been any cutting
12 into the stomachs or the gut before, when the abdomen was
13 opened, before the gut removal, that is usually all the gut
14 contents tend to come down and end up in this area.
15
16 Basically, what we try to do is to trim off any such
17 contamination from the carcass at the inspection point
18 since it is well-known fact, and it has been established by
19 experiments, that if a carcass is washed with the water
20 when it has faecal contamination on it, that faecal
21 contamination is spread all over the carcass, rather than
22 it staying on a point.
23
24 Q. I understand that, Ms. Hovi, if it be right (and you must
25 not assume from what I have said that I accept that it is
26 right), but that is not what the breach of the regulations
27 is, is it? The breach of the regulations which you assert
28 -- my Lord, I am looking at (p) of schedule 9 which is on
29 page 39 of the regulations -- what the regulation demands
30 is that no action should be taken which might alter or
31 destroy any evidence of disease or contamination before
32 inspection. That is what you are talking about ---
33 A. Yes, that is right.
34
35 Q. -- in your statement, are you not?
36 A. Yes.
37
38 Q. What evidence do you have that that ever occurred or ever
39 could occur at Jarretts?
40 A. The destroying of evidence?
41
42 Q. Yes.
43 A. The use of the hose pipe. I saw in several occasions,
44 before I managed to stop this, that a carcass was sprayed
45 with water, a carcass contaminated with gut contents was
46 sprayed with water. I know for a scientific fact that the
47 water does not wash off gut contamination; whereas, if this
48 had been left for the inspection they could have trimmed it
49 off and we would have had a perfectly clean carcass.
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Let us make sure I understand where we are
52 going. The carcass wash, the jet of water, is where it is
53 shown on the plan, is it?
54 A. There is a carcass wash there. That is a -----
55
56 Q. Are you saying there is one somewhere else too?
57 A. There is another one next to the right of the chute,
58 the gut table. If you look right in the middle of the
59 drawing, "gut removal", you have gut removal, there is a
60 chute, a table, where the guts go.
