Day 111 - 30 Mar 95 - Page 55


     
     1        But, in general, that is the picture.  The EC inspectors
     2        come very seldom, so it is after the Ministry of
     3        Agriculture or veterinary inspectors who visit the plants
     4        every three months who supervise or monitor the standards,
     5        so to speak.  They also make suggestions as to whether the
     6        plant has to follow the regulations.
     7
     8   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What is the difference between that and the
     9        square stamp abattoirs?
    10        A.  The square stamp abattoirs are not allowed to export
    11        beef outside this country.
    12
    13   Q.   No, but how does the level of inspection or monitoring
    14        there differ from the oval stamp abattoirs?
    15        A.  I would not know.  I would imagine MAFF visits these
    16        abattoirs more seldom, or if they are -- the whole thing is
    17        going through an enormous change because of the National
    18        Meat Hygiene Service taking over; also, because the whole
    19        meat hygiene monitoring has gone through enormous practical
    20        change during the last year.
    21
    22   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Leave it there unless there are specific
    23        questions in relation to it.
    24
    25   MS. STEEL:  Do you think that in the case of Jarretts the fact
    26        that they had an EC licence was in itself a quality
    27        assurance?
    28
    29   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am not going to assume that it was.  It is
    30        obviously a good start or subject to evidence that, despite
    31        the licence, it was not up to snuff.
    32
    33   MS. STEEL:   I am sorry.  It was something she said previous to
    34        us, so .....
    35
    36   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   That is the way I feel about it at the
    37        moment.
    38
    39   MS. STEEL:   The other thing is, when you were talking about the
    40        chillers and carcasses and the carcasses touching each
    41        other and over-capacity, would that have any implications
    42        or any particular implications for meat going to McKey's
    43        being bulked together in large octibins?
    44        A.  For chilling, obviously, it would be very -- it would
    45        not be advisable to put meat that is not chilled well into
    46        octibins before it is put in there, because chilling in the
    47        octibins is very poor once the meat has been put in there.
    48
    49   Q.   Can you explain why that is?
    50        A.  Because the large bulk of the octibins themselves, if 
    51        you put raw meat in the middle of an octibin and you fill 
    52        it up, then you obviously are going to have -- all heat 
    53        that is lost from that meat has to happen through
    54        convection, through other meat, and it is very unlikely it
    55        is going to happen.
    56
    57        This is also the reason why we monitor so closely the
    58        carcasses that are put into the trucks, because you have
    59        the same problem when carcasses are transported as a whole
    60        in the trucks.  You put them very full.  There is no air

Prev Next Index