Day 105 - 16 Mar 95 - Page 21


     
     1        could we discuss the "hide and skin room"?  Is that the one
     2        we are looking at?
     3
     4   Q.   There is a word that says "hatch" but I believe there is a
     5        flat door by the hatch or further along?
     6        A.  The hides are pulled off mechanically and deposited
     7        mechanically into the hide room.  The hatch is to return
     8        chains which have been attached to the hide after they have
     9        been sterlised, which is what happens.
    10
    11   Q.   Mechanically is pushed in some kind of, not the chains but
    12        the hides are pushed through on some kind of vehicle?
    13        A.  No, a hide.
    14
    15   Q.   I am not sure ----
    16        A.  A puller is a mechanical device which removes the hide
    17        automatically in an upwards direction and it is then
    18        dropped into the hide room.
    19
    20   Q.   There is an entrance way for humans pushing material, is
    21        there not, next to the hatch?
    22        A.  There is a small opening through which a trolley is
    23        pushed with the chains which need to be removed back into
    24        the slaughterhouse.
    25
    26   Q.   I see.  Are the chains sterlised each time they are used?
    27        A.  Yes.
    28
    29   Q.   That is very important, is it?
    30        A.  It is not crucial, in my opinion, but it is important
    31        because of the general practice that is now accepted.
    32        These chains come into contact only with the hide which is
    33        removed and does not come into any further contact with the
    34        meat.  So, I would not place that as a crucial point of
    35        contamination for the meat.
    36
    37   Q.   If there are doors into, for example, the hide and skin
    38        room, gut room and fat room, which I believe there are, is
    39        that correct, a door for human entry with trollies?
    40        A.  There is one into the fat room.
    41
    42   Q.   And there is one into the hide skin room, yes?
    43        A.  That is a smaller opening for a trolley.  People do not
    44        in fact -- they could squeeze through but the staff in the
    45        hide room are not the same staff that work in the
    46        slaughterhouse.  There is a strict rule that those staff do
    47        not pass between one and the another, for what it matters
    48        at that stage, I might add.
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Why do you not just put how you suggest 
    51        contamination can arise? 
    52 
    53   MR. MORRIS:  If there are doors directly from the line area into
    54        the contaminated rooms for putting contaminated parts of
    55        the animal, then that is where cross-contamination can
    56        occur, or through which cross-contamination can occur, yes?
    57        A.  That is a possibility, but it by no means follows that
    58        it does because the staff are instructed, when they are
    59        working in the dirty area, not to pass into the clean
    60        area.  There is nothing to stop, in theory, people walking

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