Day 289 - 29 Oct 96 - Page 38
1 to scalder, he said: "We aim for a minimum of 90 seconds."
2 That was day 89, page 56, line 1. As I say, whether or not
3 that applied at the time when Dr. Gregory was making his
4 inspection, we do not know.
5
6 He also referred, when we were talking about the practice
7 of shackling the males and females separately for the
8 slaughter line, he said that it had become the practice to
9 hang them separately, because growing them separately is
10 now part of standard management practice, whereas a few
11 years ago it was not. That was 89, 54, 54. I think that
12 is just -- I mean, it is just really indicative of the huge
13 number of changes that there have been to the practices
14 since -----
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Can I just go back to what you were saying
17 about the changes in the slaughter line? Did Dr. Pattison
18 suggest that there were less birds missing the stun bath
19 after the change in line?
20
21 MS. STEEL: He said something like one in 300 to 400 birds get
22 to the knife whilst still conscious with the new system --
23 that was on day 89, page 57 -- which obviously is less than
24 it had been, though it is still quite a considerable number
25 in terms of how many per day. If it was one in 300, it
26 would be about 570 birds a day going to the knife while
27 still conscious.
28
29 MR JUSTICE BELL: Do you have the figure for 400? Do not
30 worry. I can work it out.
31
32 MS. STEEL: 425.
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Did we have any evidence as to how long the
35 line ran for in a day?
36
37 MS. STEEL: What, how many hours?
38
39 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
40
41 MS. STEEL: I have a feeling it was between 8 o'clock and
42 5 o'clock, but I might be completely wrong about that.
43 I would have thought actually it would start
44 earlier. I can't remember how many hours. I think just
45 that -- I think there was something said about the OVS
46 being at the plant every day between 8 o'clock and
47 5 o'clock. But, obviously, that might not tie in exactly
48 with all the hours of the slaughtering process.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Thank you. Dr. Gregory said that the time
51 from neck cutting to scalding at Sun Valley was in the
52 order of two to two and a half minutes. The usual in the
53 UK is two and a half minutes. It varies in the UK from a
54 minute and three-quarters to about four and a quarter
55 minutes.
56
57 MS. STEEL: Right. OK. I think it must have been the stun to
58 the neck cut that Dr. Gregory did not have the time for. I
59 did ask him whether it was in his notes, and I did ask
60 whether or not we could have them sent to us, but we never
