Day 097 - 06 Mar 95 - Page 74
1 the dirt with a pressurized spray you would make an aerosol
2 of the bacteria that are there and spread them around. So
3 what we try to do where we do have instances of
4 contamination is to trim that off.
5
6 Q. You mean visible contamination?
7 A. Yes.
8
9 Q. Bit a of dung smeared on the outside of the meat?
10 A. Yes.
11
12 Q. To what extent, if any, are you conscious of any risk that
13 at the stage before the meat is processed contamination
14 can, as it were, penetrate the surface of the meat?
15 A. I mean, bacteria being very small things you do get an
16 ingress. I think you can get an ingress. I am not too
17 familiar with that.
18
19 Q. Into a joint or a split or something like that?
20 A. Yes.
21
22 Q. If you keep your water to a minimum as you just said, what
23 means can you use to ensure reduction or minimisation of
24 contamination inside the slaughter hall?
25 A. Training of the staff.
26
27 Q. What are they trained to do or not to do?
28 A. Keep themselves and their implements clean, sterilizing
29 between animals.
30
31 Q. There are two possible sources of contamination, are there
32 not? There is the actual animal itself?
33 A. Yes.
34
35 Q. From the interior of the animal, perhaps from stuff that
36 has come in on it, and then the risk from the environment,
37 it might be the humans, it might be the surfaces, it might
38 be the implements?
39 A. Sure, yes. One thing we do is every employee has an
40 environmental health officer's certificate in food hygiene
41 which is an examination they are required to sit. This has
42 been geared specifically towards our operation rather than
43 a generic one which restaurants and cafes seem to use. We
44 are trying to make people aware of the problems. There are
45 various checks carried out after cleaning and during the
46 processing or will be to ensure that the process is as
47 hygienic as possible.
48
49 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Mr. Rampton, I may have misunderstood
50 something earlier when Mr. Chambers was talking about
51 washing and sterilizing implements and washing hands
52 between animals. I had understood that he was referring to
53 a case where it could be seen that there had been
54 contamination. Was that right or were you saying it is
55 done between one animal and the next anyway?
56 A. We encourage it to done between one animal and the next
57 anyway.
58
59 MR. RAMPTON: My Lordship is quite right there. We started off
60 with the case of one animal or maybe a piece of a carcass
