Day 081 - 31 Jan 95 - Page 14
1 last question is becoming far too long anyway. Can you
2 pass your eye back to the McKey table in the file and look
3 by way of comparison at what is said about E.coli there?
4 It is in the second part of the page, do you see it?
5 A. Yes.
6
7 Q. (a), as we see from the next page, is the microbial count
8 below which the sample is considered to be "satisfactory"?
9 A. Yes.
10
11 Q. We see there that the number given, and this is uncooked
12 meat, raw meat, is 50, do you see that?
13 A. Yes.
14
15 Q. The question I was going to ask you is this: The figure
16 for "satisfactory" in the cooked meat is less than 20 per
17 gramme and the uncooked meat, 50 is the top limit; is that
18 right? Have I understood that correctly?
19
20 MR. MORRIS: It is not the top limit.
21
22 THE WITNESS: Yes.
23
24 MR. RAMPTON: Anyway, 20 on the one hand, 50 on the other?
25 A. Yes.
26
27 Q. Can you answer, please, this question: Having regard to
28 the fact that the meat on the McKey sheet which the McKey
29 sheet refers to is raw meat, does it seem to you that the
30 figure of 50 is -- I put it this way -- sensible,
31 over-cautious or reckless?
32 A. I think that is sensible, this is raw food. Cooking
33 should destroy all of these.
34
35 Q. Generally speaking, looking at the McKey figures, numbers,
36 in that sheet which apply only to raw meat, do they seem to
37 you to be sensible, over-cautious or over-generous to the
38 bacteria and dangerous to humans?
39 A. These are sensible levels.
40
41 Q. Finally, Professor Jackson, I would like you to look at one
42 other document. This one is, I am afraid, in a different
43 file. Retrieve from the shelves yellow volume large IX,
44 "Rearing and Slaughter". Turn towards the end to tab 9,
45 please. You will find there when you get there a statement
46 by Mr. David Walker and behind his statement you should
47 find a plan, a folding plan?
48 A. Yes.
49
50 Q. This, I tell you, is not a plan of a place you have
51 visited, so far as I know at any rate. It is a ground plan
52 of the slaughtering facility at Jarrets abattoir somewhere
53 in the west country. Just glance over it, please,
54 Professor Jackson, for a moment and just take a few minutes
55 to do that. Then I will ask you some questions, if I may.
56 A. Yes.
57
58 Q. From your experience of abattoirs, from your visit to
59 Midland Meat Packers, is there anything unusual about this
60 layout?
