Day 081 - 31 Jan 95 - Page 26
1 A. It is inevitable in any sort of bulking, whether it is
2 meat or milk or water. When you add different sources you
3 are, obviously, adding the different contaminations as
4 well. It is not really relevant to -- it does not indicate
5 that the process should be banned, if that is what you are
6 implying.
7
8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What do you understand "salmonella burden" to
9 mean? Is it a term of art, if you talk of salmonella
10 burden or E.coli burden?
11 A. It does not have any precise scientific meaning, sir.
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If you think you know what it does mean,
14 Ms. Steel, I would be grateful if you could put to
15 Professor Jackson just so I cotton on, if you see what
16 I mean, because at one stage it talks of a salmonella
17 reduction programme, or Mr. North does, which has brought
18 incidence rates in live birds to one per cent which,
19 rightly or wrongly, I had understood to mean that across
20 the board one in 100 live Sun Valley Poultry birds had
21 showed salmonella.
22
23 THE WITNESS: Yes.
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I was informed that the average salmonella
26 burden in the finished processed meat was in the order of
27 25 per cent; it is that which -----
28 A. Yes, sir, it is the second part I do not quite follow.
29
30 Q. If you cannot help, there we are, but if you think you know
31 what it means, put it to Professor Jackson so that -----
32
33 MS. STEEL: I do not know, to be honest. I presumed that it was
34 25 per cent of the meat had some trace of salmonella.
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What, 25 per cent of the Nuggets or
37 something?
38
39 MS. STEEL: I do not know. I do not know, to be honest.
40
41 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, we are going to ask Sun Valley about it,
42 obviously. We have not heard from them yet
43 otherwise -----
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, very well. Yes?
46
47 MS. STEEL (To the witness): You said that all the premises you
48 visited had lab facilities, was that lab facilities on
49 site?
50 A. Yes, on site.
51
52 Q. Is that something that is important in terms of hygiene?
53 A. The larger premises would have these. It is certainly
54 not a requirement but it does show evidence of good
55 management, good policy.
56
57 Q. If someone cleaned up using a cloth and they wiped down a
58 contaminated surface, if they used the same cloth to clean
59 another surface, would that spread the contamination or
60 could it spread the contamination?
