Day 106 - 23 Mar 95 - Page 42


     
     1        intrinsically unhygienic because instead of controlling and
     2        containing contamination it is magnifying it.
     3
     4        So that is the Sun Valley ---
     5
     6   Q.   Sorry.
     7        A.  -- and it is a good example.
     8
     9   Q.   Before you go on, I was just going to ask:  You were given
    10        figures of the salmonella burden by Sun Valley, yes?
    11        A.  Verbally, orally, from Dr. Pattison.
    12
    13   Q.   Right, and that was 1 per cent in the live birds at the
    14        current time?
    15        A.  Less than 1 per cent.
    16
    17   Q.   And the processed meat 25 per cent?
    18        A.  That is right.  The actual meat as it is stripped off
    19        the carcass is in the stripping room.
    20
    21   Q.   That is the deboned stage, is it?
    22        A.  That is deboning, yes.
    23
    24   Q.   Were you given figures for the finished product?
    25        A.  No, they did not have them.
    26
    27   Q.   Based on your experience, what is the salmonella burden
    28        likely to be in the finished product?
    29        A.  Well, if the meat going into the process is 25 per
    30        cent, and you are then going to mix this up in bulk hoppers
    31        and grind it up and mix it altogether to make a mass,
    32        marginless mass, coming out the other end, you would expect
    33        the -----
    34
    35   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Are you sure about this?  I am beginning to
    36        think, without being rude, I might just as well put your
    37        second statement completely on one side.  I assume that you
    38        do not want Mr. North to adopt any of it?
    39
    40   MS. STEEL:   The problem is, I do not know, we wanted more
    41        explanation of things -----
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I appreciate that.  You see, the reason
    44        I interrupted then was at the top of the second page of the
    45        report it is said -- starting at the very bottom of what is
    46        stamped page 2 but is, in fact, the first page -- "I was
    47        given to understand that the installation of crate washers
    48        had been part of an overall salmonella reduction programme
    49        in the live birds which had brought incidence rates in live
    50        birds to 1 per cent.  However, I was informed that the 
    51        average salmonella burden in the finished process meat was 
    52        in the order of 25 per cent". 
    53        A.  This is a processing plant.  That is why I have used
    54        that term.  Now, the processed meat is the meat, not the
    55        McNuggets, that is the meat -- there are two stages that
    56        the birds go through to carcass stage, finished carcass
    57        stage.  Then they go into the deboning area where they are
    58        processed into meat.
    59
    60   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  They are meat when they come in?

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