Day 096 - 03 Mar 95 - Page 53
1 A. Approximately, I would have said with us again about
2 half a per cent.
3
4 Q. Half a per cent. You said before, I believe, only one per
5 cent are actually checked by vets?
6 A. No, I do not recall that.
7
8 Q. I might have got that wrong?
9 A. No, definitely no. Every single animal going through
10 our plant is checked by six meat inspectors and one vet.
11
12 Q. I can check that anyway. What are the main causes of
13 rejection of the carcass then?
14 A. Again, you can have pleurisy, you can have things like
15 anaemia, you can have a cyst in the kidney, you can have
16 the liver condemned as well because of worms that they will
17 pick up on outdoor production, etc. There are a multiple
18 of things.
19
20 Q. You mentioned in your evidence-in-chief something about
21 abscesses in the spinal column; is that something that is
22 quite -----
23 A. Yes, you can also have that as well.
24
25 Q. It is not unusual in terms of a cause of carcass being
26 rejected?
27 A. You can have that, yes, but it is not frequent, but it
28 is not unusual.
29
30 Q. The main cause of that is the tail biting, yes?
31 A. Yes.
32
33 Q. We are finishing bits and pieces off.
34
35 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Why do you not sit down?
36
37 MR. MORRIS: I am all right. (To the witness): Just one thing
38 you mentioned in evidence-in-chief: You said that the
39 carcass is quick chilled in 50 minutes down to minus 27
40 degrees?
41 A. No, that is the air temperature of the chill room.
42
43 Q. The minus 27 degrees is the area of the chill room?
44 A. Yes.
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It was brought down and you had this
47 equalisation period or whatever you called it?
48 A. That is correct, yes. You are becoming an expert, sir.
49
50 MR. MORRIS: So the carcass equalises to two or three degrees
51 centigrade, you said?
52 A. Correct.
53
54 Q. For most of that 50 minutes the carcass, of course, is much
55 higher than the two to three degrees centigrade, if it
56 finishes at that temperature?
57 A. Why, yes, you have outside crust that will be down to
58 zero or a bit below and then internally that can be, you
59 know, 15, 18 degrees.
60
