Day 104 - 15 Mar 95 - Page 30
1 Q. So the hide is stripped off the cattle?
2 A. Yes.
3
4 Q. Then the next stage is gut or gut removal?
5 A. Yes.
6
7 Q. It actually has written "chute to gut table", is that true
8 or false?
9 A. Yes, the operator who is shown there removes the
10 stomach and intestines, in fact, and they fall
11 automatically on to the chute and again they are then
12 lifted through a hatchway into the gut room where they are
13 processed further.
14
15 Q. Are the hide and skin rooms separate -- is it separate from
16 the gut room?
17 A. Yes, the hide and skin room is separate from the gut
18 room, of course.
19
20 Q. What happens to the gut?
21 A. The large part of the stomach is emptied and washed,
22 and is then sent on to make tripe and the intestines either
23 depending on the state of the by-product's business are
24 emptied of the contents and turned inside out and sold for
25 various processing, or sometimes, if there is no market for
26 that material, they are conveyed directly to a skip, a
27 covered skip, outside the premises in the by-products' yard
28 for removal.
29
30 Q. Is that an operation which is separate from, as it were,
31 the production of the meat?
32 A. Entirely. All these operations are physically separate
33 and have separate staff to the people working on what by
34 this time is the meat. As soon as hide and gut have come
35 off it -----
36
37 Q. Are there people, as Mr. Morris was suggesting the other
38 day, that might be guggling(?) around in the gut or
39 whatever, or the faeces, and then walk across and
40 contaminating the beef line?
41 A. No.
42
43 Q. We notice that by the gut table there is a word -- he is
44 not drawn -- which says "vet"?
45 A. Yes.
46
47 Q. What is he doing there?
48 A. He will be generally supervising operations. The vet
49 in that particular situation would not himself be examining
50 the gut. That would be a meat inspector.
51
52 Q. That would be a meat inspector?
53 A. Yes.
54
55 Q. What is the meat inspector looking for when he examines the
56 gut?
57 A. He is looking for visible signs of inflammation or
58 adhesions, as they are called, or other abnormalities of
59 the surface. He also incises glands or lymphatic glands to
60 check for tuberculosis actually, even though it is extinct.
