Day 105 - 16 Mar 95 - Page 21
1 could we discuss the "hide and skin room"? Is that the one
2 we are looking at?
3
4 Q. There is a word that says "hatch" but I believe there is a
5 flat door by the hatch or further along?
6 A. The hides are pulled off mechanically and deposited
7 mechanically into the hide room. The hatch is to return
8 chains which have been attached to the hide after they have
9 been sterlised, which is what happens.
10
11 Q. Mechanically is pushed in some kind of, not the chains but
12 the hides are pushed through on some kind of vehicle?
13 A. No, a hide.
14
15 Q. I am not sure ----
16 A. A puller is a mechanical device which removes the hide
17 automatically in an upwards direction and it is then
18 dropped into the hide room.
19
20 Q. There is an entrance way for humans pushing material, is
21 there not, next to the hatch?
22 A. There is a small opening through which a trolley is
23 pushed with the chains which need to be removed back into
24 the slaughterhouse.
25
26 Q. I see. Are the chains sterlised each time they are used?
27 A. Yes.
28
29 Q. That is very important, is it?
30 A. It is not crucial, in my opinion, but it is important
31 because of the general practice that is now accepted.
32 These chains come into contact only with the hide which is
33 removed and does not come into any further contact with the
34 meat. So, I would not place that as a crucial point of
35 contamination for the meat.
36
37 Q. If there are doors into, for example, the hide and skin
38 room, gut room and fat room, which I believe there are, is
39 that correct, a door for human entry with trollies?
40 A. There is one into the fat room.
41
42 Q. And there is one into the hide skin room, yes?
43 A. That is a smaller opening for a trolley. People do not
44 in fact -- they could squeeze through but the staff in the
45 hide room are not the same staff that work in the
46 slaughterhouse. There is a strict rule that those staff do
47 not pass between one and the another, for what it matters
48 at that stage, I might add.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Why do you not just put how you suggest
51 contamination can arise?
52
53 MR. MORRIS: If there are doors directly from the line area into
54 the contaminated rooms for putting contaminated parts of
55 the animal, then that is where cross-contamination can
56 occur, or through which cross-contamination can occur, yes?
57 A. That is a possibility, but it by no means follows that
58 it does because the staff are instructed, when they are
59 working in the dirty area, not to pass into the clean
60 area. There is nothing to stop, in theory, people walking
