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.

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