Day 106 - 23 Mar 95 - Page 42
1 intrinsically unhygienic because instead of controlling and
2 containing contamination it is magnifying it.
3
4 So that is the Sun Valley ---
5
6 Q. Sorry.
7 A. -- and it is a good example.
8
9 Q. Before you go on, I was just going to ask: You were given
10 figures of the salmonella burden by Sun Valley, yes?
11 A. Verbally, orally, from Dr. Pattison.
12
13 Q. Right, and that was 1 per cent in the live birds at the
14 current time?
15 A. Less than 1 per cent.
16
17 Q. And the processed meat 25 per cent?
18 A. That is right. The actual meat as it is stripped off
19 the carcass is in the stripping room.
20
21 Q. That is the deboned stage, is it?
22 A. That is deboning, yes.
23
24 Q. Were you given figures for the finished product?
25 A. No, they did not have them.
26
27 Q. Based on your experience, what is the salmonella burden
28 likely to be in the finished product?
29 A. Well, if the meat going into the process is 25 per
30 cent, and you are then going to mix this up in bulk hoppers
31 and grind it up and mix it altogether to make a mass,
32 marginless mass, coming out the other end, you would expect
33 the -----
34
35 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Are you sure about this? I am beginning to
36 think, without being rude, I might just as well put your
37 second statement completely on one side. I assume that you
38 do not want Mr. North to adopt any of it?
39
40 MS. STEEL: The problem is, I do not know, we wanted more
41 explanation of things -----
42
43 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I appreciate that. You see, the reason
44 I interrupted then was at the top of the second page of the
45 report it is said -- starting at the very bottom of what is
46 stamped page 2 but is, in fact, the first page -- "I was
47 given to understand that the installation of crate washers
48 had been part of an overall salmonella reduction programme
49 in the live birds which had brought incidence rates in live
50 birds to 1 per cent. However, I was informed that the
51 average salmonella burden in the finished process meat was
52 in the order of 25 per cent".
53 A. This is a processing plant. That is why I have used
54 that term. Now, the processed meat is the meat, not the
55 McNuggets, that is the meat -- there are two stages that
56 the birds go through to carcass stage, finished carcass
57 stage. Then they go into the deboning area where they are
58 processed into meat.
59
60 MR. JUSTICE BELL: They are meat when they come in?
