Day 112 - 31 Mar 95 - Page 17
1 A. Yes, I thought I did.
2
3 Q. What are you doing putting into a statement, a serious
4 statement of this kind, information which is completely
5 irrelevant and misleading in so far as McDonald's are
6 concerned?
7 A. I think it is relevant in a sense that I measured the
8 temperatures of carcasses when they went into the boning
9 hall. It is very unlikely, in my mind, that the carcasses,
10 carcass temperatures will go down in the boning hall where
11 the ambient temperature is 12.
12
13 As far as I am concerned, the statement is correct; whether
14 it is relevant, that is for the Judge to decide, I assume.
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You are saying, of course, when you were
17 there you did not have any idea you were going (or I assume
18 you did not) to be called as a witness in a case involving
19 McDonald's. As it happens, you took the temperature of
20 carcasses being loaded on to lorries. What you say (as
21 I am interpreting it, so tell me if I am wrong), if those
22 carcasses were well above 7 degrees centigrade, you would
23 expect the carcasses going into the boning hall to be cut
24 up for McKey's were also well above 7; is that what you are
25 saying?
26 A. Well, I am also saying, I have also mentioned earlier,
27 that I did measure the temperatures in the boning hall of
28 half carcasses and quarters that were being cut up.
29 I stayed in the boning hall long enough to see that they
30 were being boned as well, so I knew that meat was being, at
31 least they started to bone meat that was well above 7.
32
33 MR. RAMPTON: So, in so far as this paragraph might be thought
34 to apply to the meat destined for McKey's, it is an
35 assumption or inference, is it not? You never measured the
36 McKey meat temperatures, did you?
37 A. No, I did not, unless some of the meat that was being
38 cut up that I did measure in the slaughter hall that went
39 to McKey. There was no way of me knowing whether that was
40 going to end up in the octibin or in some other package.
41
42 Q. We must not treat it, must we, as the categorical assertion
43 of fact which it appears to be in black and white on this
44 page, must we?
45 A. No, we must not.
46
47 Q. No, we must not. Why does an increase in temperature lead
48 to an added risk of contamination, Ms. Hovi?
49 A. I am referring -- again this might be my poor English
50 and I apologise for that -- I am referring to the
51 slaughterhouse and the cutting premises operating at
52 considerable overcapacity and this causing contamination.
53
54 Q. That may be, but the increase in temperature has no bearing
55 upon the added risk of contamination, has it?
56 A. No, it has bearing on bacterial growth.
57
58 Q. I will allow that that is a poor expression of English; it
59 is not your first language.
60 A. Well, I am glad that it has been clarified now.
