Day 112 - 31 Mar 95 - Page 26
1
2 MR. MORRIS: On the right?
3 A. We go further, it is almost at the words, the
4 right-hand side.
5
6 MR. RAMPTON: That has a sterilization point?
7 A. That has one sterilization point, but there were --
8 often the fat trimming was done, it is done by using knives
9 but also a circular saw, that is hand-held, little circular
10 saw that is used for trimming off the soft fat off the
11 carcass. This was not sterilized because there was not any
12 proper equipment for its sterilization. That was one point
13 that was mentioned, I remember, earlier and I brought it up
14 as well.
15
16 Q. Where is the last point in this process at which the meat
17 is inspected in the statutory sense?
18 A. Last point where it is inspected?
19
20 Q. Yes.
21 A. As I said yesterday, the inspection can in a statutory
22 sense happen even at the boning hall, and it was not a rare
23 occasion where the meat inspector or myself was called to
24 the boning hall to condemn meat that had bruising or some
25 other conditions that might warrant condemnation in the
26 boning hall itself. Sometimes, the men who do the deboning
27 come across abscesses in the boning and they obviously want
28 to refer that immediately to the inspectors.
29
30 Q. That, of course, I can well understand, but there is a
31 statutory obligation of inspection, is there not ---
32 A. Yes.
33
34 Q. -- for which the OVS is responsible?
35 A. Yes, that is right.
36
37 Q. Where is the last point in the process, the chain, at which
38 the OVS may satisfy his statutory obligation either by
39 inspection himself or by its being done on his behalf by a
40 meat inspector?
41 A. I would maintain that there is not such a point, that
42 I would, that the OVS has a right to perform postmortem
43 inspection at any stage until the meat leaves the plant.
44
45 Q. In this plan, Ms. Hovi, we find the vet -- I do not say he
46 is always there, or she -- at the evisceration stage?
47 A. Yes.
48
49 Q. That is, obviously, quite a good place for the vet to be,
50 is it not?
51 A. Yes.
52
53 Q. We see on the other side of the line -- what Mr. Morris
54 calls the south side of the line -- the word "inspection"?
55 A. Yes.
56
57 Q. Does that indicate that that is where an inspection would
58 be taking place by meat inspectors?
59 A. That is where part of the inspection is being taken
60 care of by -- that is usually where the meat inspectors
