Day 111 - 30 Mar 95 - Page 34
1 So, in the most advanced, as far as hygiene is concerned,
2 abattoirs, the carcasses are not washed any more. They are
3 only washed, the inside abdominal cavity, thoracic cavity
4 -- thoracic cavity.
5
6 Q. Thoracic?
7 A. Thoracic cavity. The split surface of the carcass are
8 washed to get rid of the bone dust from the carcass
9 splitting saw, but washing happens -- definitely it has to
10 happen -- after the inspection.
11
12 MR. MORRIS: At Jarretts were they doing the kind of washing or
13 spraying that you were describing or were they doing ----
14 A. They had washed part of the carcass already before
15 inspection which I was strongly opposed to. They also
16 washed the whole carcass, both inside and outside. There
17 has been a lot of research done into this area and,
18 basically, the latest research from the 1980s implicates
19 that there is no difference, basically, as far as the
20 contamination levels, or the total viable counts on the
21 carcasses are after or before the washing of the
22 carcasses.
23
24 Basically, it has no advantageous effect on the
25 contamination levels of the carcass, but it does have
26 disadvantageous effects in cases where there still is
27 contamination, invisible contamination, on the carcass,
28 faecal contamination on the carcass, after the inspection.
29 It is very possible. We are very aware of that fact that
30 that is possible.
31
32 Additional washing of the carcass on the surface only aids
33 at spreading this contamination around the whole carcass,
34 rather than leaving at one spot where it could, perhaps, be
35 even trimmed. If it turned visible in the chillers, it
36 could be trimmed off then at the boning hall. It is not at
37 all rare that the meat inspectors are called into the
38 boning hall to condemn meat there as well that has passed
39 the initial meat inspection on the slaughter line.
40
41 But the additional negative effect that the carcass washing
42 has applies to those abattoirs where the chilling of the
43 carcasses is not done in the statutory manner -- that is
44 Fresh Meat, Hygiene and Inspection Regulations 92, Schedule
45 7, I think -- we can check it afterwards -- where it says
46 that the carcasses have to be chilled so that air
47 circulates freely around them.
48
49 Now, in many abattoirs or, I could probably say that in
50 most abattoirs that I have seen, there is always some
51 degree of touching of the carcasses in the chillers. At
52 Jarretts, this touching of the carcasses was regular and it
53 happened. Every carcass touched a carcass next to it and
54 they were pushed so close together that there was no free
55 circulation of the air around the carcasses. At least this
56 was during the time I was working there. This was more a
57 rule than an exception.
58
59 This situation, when you have washed the carcasses and they
60 have wet surfaces, this touching of the carcasses leads to
