Day 066 - 14 Dec 94 - Page 31


     
     1        the muscle of the animal?
     2        A.  That is correct.  It will in both -- in the species in
     3        both chicken or beef it will show.
     4
     5   Q.   And pigs?
     6        A.  And pigs, yes.
     7
     8   Q.   How does it show?
     9        A.  It shows -- in pigs it shows, there is a condition that
    10        is called Pale Self-exudative or PSE for short, where the
    11        meat is very -- it becomes very whitish, very pale, and it
    12        develops a substance on the top, the exudative on the top,
    13        and it becomes very shiny.
    14
    15   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is becomes sort of slimy, does it?
    16        A.  Yes, that is what it does, slimy.  The word is called
    17        the exudative.
    18
    19   MR. RAMPTON:  That is attributable to stress, is it?
    20        A.  Yes, it is shown.
    21
    22   Q.   Can you tell us what is the physiological or biochemical
    23        explanation of that change?
    24        A.  Yes, I can.  In muscles animals have -- they store
    25        energy as a fat or carbohydrates glycogen.  During that --
    26        when the animal, to produce energy, so there is a
    27        degradation normally from carbohydrates all the way to what
    28        is called ATP or usable energy.  During the process, if
    29        stress is applied to an animal, one of the bi-products of
    30        that biochemical change converting the energy, the store
    31        energy into usable energy, one of the bi-products is lactic
    32        acid.  That lactic acid will reduce the pH of the meat.
    33
    34        The pH of the meat has a direct effect on the ability of
    35        the meat to hold water.  That is what you see where the
    36        meat does not hold that water, because the animal has been
    37        stressed and, as a result, there has been a higher
    38        production of lactic acid which resulted in a lower pH of
    39        the meat.  And you see that condition on the meat, and will
    40        affect also some of their -- that lower pH will affect in
    41        the nature of some of the proteins and enzymes in the
    42        muscles.
    43
    44   Q.   What are the sorts of conditions or circumstances which,
    45        leaving aside physical injury, produce stress in animals?
    46        A.  Any sign of stress could be nutrition, if the animal do
    47        not have water; could be noise; could be the handling; it
    48        could be that the animal is not familiar with the
    49        environment; it could be transportation -- basically, it
    50        could be anything. 
    51 
    52   Q.   Take your example of the pig meat, if the pork is PSE, what 
    53        happens to it as part of the production process?
    54        A.  The products that are result, and especially in our
    55        case, will not have the right texture, will definitely not
    56        have the right colour, and will not have the right flavour
    57        as well.
    58
    59   Q.   So is it, nonetheless, accepted and bunged in with the
    60        product just the same or not?

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