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
