Day 111 - 30 Mar 95 - Page 42
1 assumption that among general bacterial contamination which
2 usually is off faecal origin when we deal with slaughtered
3 animals, there are pathogenic bacteria as well.
4
5 So, I could not say with full confidence that those
6 operations were the best possible. I was concerned about --
7 well, my concern in general, my basic remit for the work is
8 to protect public health and I had public health concerns
9 as far as Jarretts was concerned.
10
11 Q. As regards the management's attitude to your health
12 concerns, what would you conclude?
13 A. Well, it varied a lot during the three weeks. On some
14 matters like I mentioned, the sterlisation equipment in the
15 boning hall, the management seemed extremely co-operative
16 and appreciated what I said. In some other matters, like
17 I mentioned, the boot wash, my professional opinion seemed
18 to be disregarded completely by the management. It varied,
19 I must say.
20
21 Q. One thing about the chillers before we move off the plan,
22 I believe Mr. Bennett said something to the effect that it
23 had been a provision or requirement they be chilled --
24 sorry, not chillers, detained room, it be chilled,
25 something like going back to 1987 or something. What is
26 your understanding of the requirements or the guidelines
27 for chilling detained and condemned rooms?
28 A. It has to be refrigerated so that the carcasses are
29 exposed to the same chilling as they would be if they
30 proceeded on the line normally into the chillers.
31
32 Q. What is that? Is that a requirement? Is that a law?
33 A. At the moment, it is a statutory requirement in the
34 Fresh Meat Hygiene and Inspection Regulations which came
35 into force in their entirety in January 1993. For EC
36 licensed plants that has been a requirement already
37 previously. As long as the EC licensing has been
38 necessary, that requirement has existed. It has been in
39 the EC Directives, basically. As far as -----
40
41 Q. So how does a plant get a licence when it is not complying
42 with the Directive?
43 A. It gets a licence, pending these improvements that have
44 to be made, that the inspector sees necessary, or it gets a
45 licence on the basis of promises that have been made or
46 whatever. I have not seen the original licensing document
47 for Jarretts, but I am sure that considering the
48 requirements of the Directive, I am sure that there was
49 mention about the fact that the detained room was not
50 chilled and there was obviously a time limit set to when it
51 should be.
52
53 We have to remember that the temporary Derogations
54 Directive that applies for non-export plants has nothing to
55 do with Jarretts. They could not legally get a derogation
56 for anything that was any of the statutory shortcomings of
57 the plant because the derogations only apply to plant that
58 do not export. They do not have a health mark to be able
59 to health mark their meat for export. They have a square
60 stamp, whereas export abattoirs have an oval stamp.
