Day 094 - 01 Mar 95 - Page 58


     
     1   Q.   Is the Montfort company one of the ones that is involved in
     2        that experiment?
     3        A.  I do not know.
     4
     5   Q.   You do not know?
     6        A.  No.
     7
     8   Q.   Was the purpose of the streamlined inspection system to
     9        increase the productivity of beef plants?
    10        A.  It is not the intent of the -- it is not to increase
    11        productivity of the meat plants.  The intent of it is to
    12        put more responsibility on the supplier to make sure that
    13        that meat that he produces is wholesome as opposed to
    14        depending on the inspectors to make that kind of decision,
    15        and have that kind of responsibility.  The methodology of
    16        the test is that by streamlining they reduce the number of
    17        inspectors and increase the number of persons responsible
    18        on the plant to see what would happen if the number of
    19        inspectors were to be reduced, have indicated that there is
    20        no negative effect and it has nothing to do with increasing
    21        the productivity of the plant in terms of volumes.
    22
    23   Q.   So it has not had any effect of speeding up the lines or
    24        the process at all?
    25        A.  I do not know if it had any effect or consistent or
    26        significant effect on speeding up the line.  That one I do
    27        not know, but what I do know is that it has no significant
    28        effect on the microbiological level of the carcasses.
    29
    30   Q.   Which are the conditions that you know that are part of the
    31        streamlined inspection system?
    32        A.  I do not remember exactly, but I am pretty sure that
    33        all the big three were involved to some degree.  I cannot
    34        tell you for sure.
    35
    36   Q.   Would you look at page 37 and read the last paragraph in
    37        the left-hand column?
    38        A.  Yes.
    39
    40   Q.   Have you seen a thing like that happen?
    41        A.  Absolutely not.  It is a federal crime to do so.  If a
    42        person violates that it is a federal offence which is
    43        punishable by severe penalty.  You can even end up in
    44        jail.  The inspector is the only who can make that decision
    45        on whether or not that meat is contaminated or not or to
    46        decide whether or not it is wholesome, he is the only one.
    47
    48   Q.   The paragraph that starts in the right-hand column just
    49        above the black lines that go across the page, "observed
    50        from the cat walk", if you just read from there onwards. 
    51        A.  Yes. 
    52 
    53   Q.   Have you seen that happening?
    54        A.  No, I have not.  Again it is the same thing.  Employees
    55        cannot, they are very aware that they cannot do that.  The
    56        only person who has the authority to do that is the Federal
    57        inspector.
    58
    59   Q.   What about the four paragraphs following that?
    60        A.  The ones that start with "pool".

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