Day 066 - 14 Dec 94 - Page 52
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The head and offal goes on to the rail which
2 is shown behind the backs of the people working there, does
3 it? I see there is a head/offal row. So hide and skin and
4 gut go down the chutes on one side and the head and offal
5 goes on to a line in another direction?
6 A. Yes.
7
8 MR. RAMPTON: We see, do we not, beside the gut removal man the
9 little figure of a hand wash and an apron wash. Is that
10 standard practice, to have a facility for washing both the
11 hands and the apron?
12 A. Yes, it is.
13
14 Q. What sort of sterile process would that be? What sort of
15 material do they use to sterilize their hands?
16 A. It is usually water in a steam jet injected into the,
17 or it could only be just had water.
18
19 Q. Do they use any kind of antibacterial soap or anything like
20 that?
21 A. Some people use chlorine but hot water is enough.
22
23 Q. That is enough.
24 A. It will kill the bacteria.
25
26 Q. Because of its heat?
27 A. The heat, yes.
28
29 Q. Yes, I understand. The next man is the splitting sawman.
30 Again he has got a sterile hand wash beside him. Then
31 comes a branch line, as it were, up into what is called the
32 condemned room. Before I get to that, I have missed out
33 the vet. Although he has not got a picture, has got a name
34 and he is standing in the corner between the splitting
35 sawman and the chute to the gut table. Would that be a
36 sensible place to have a vet?
37 A. Yes. The vet -- that will be the place the vet will
38 look at the internal organs of the animals, will also look
39 at the outside of the animal, and look for signs of injury,
40 will look for signs of disease in the organs and will look
41 also at the presence of any contamination in the carcass or
42 in the meat. So, that would be ideal position for him to
43 evaluate the carcass.
44
45 Q. You have told us that in most countries of the world there
46 will be a Health Inspector appointed by the government that
47 will come in and observe the operation?
48 A. In most developed countries and in quite lot of the
49 developing countries, that is the case.
50
51 Q. And that in some countries, at least, there is also a vet,
52 a veterinary officer, to, as it were, look after the
53 animals?
54 A. That is correct such as, for example, the US, yes.
55
56 Q. I do not know if you can answer this: Do you know to what
57 extent slaughterhouses that supply McDonald's employ their
58 own veterinary officers?
59 A. We do not have slaughterhouses.
60
