Day 105 - 16 Mar 95 - Page 49


     
     1        A.  Well, in the case of cutting up a carcass, when it is
     2        necessary to trace it back as well as maybe possible you
     3        need to identify which has gone into the boning room
     4        because then it becomes much more difficult.  It is very
     5        easy to trace a carcass which is not cut up because all
     6        this information is transferred to a label which goes on to
     7        the carcass.
     8
     9   Q.   So who fills in this form and when?
    10        A.  There is a person stood at the scale in the
    11        slaughterhouse, next to the scale, and stood at a desk, and
    12        he is authorised by the Meat and Livestock Commission to
    13        certify that the animals are of a certain grade and certain
    14        weight.  Until three, perhaps four, years ago this was
    15        always done by MLC officials, but now it is possible for a
    16        company to certify weights and grades with their own staff
    17        so long as they are approved by the Meat and Livestock
    18        Commission.
    19
    20   Q.   When is it done in the process?
    21        A.  It is done when the two sides of the animal immediately
    22        after slaughter have been weighed.  That is when the
    23        information is transferred to a ticket of edible collagen,
    24        and that is stuck on the carcass which identifies that
    25        carcass and presents the information thereon during the
    26        process.
    27
    28   Q.   So who has filled in the Xs because it will not be the same
    29        person, will it?
    30        A.  If he is instructed to select certain carcasses for
    31        going to the boning room, he will put that X on it.  He
    32        will put an X on the label as well and that will go into
    33        the chillers and subsequently into the boning room
    34        prechiller, the chiller which is used to hold boning room
    35        meat.  It is purely an information system within the
    36        company.
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What point are you getting at on this
    39        document?  It is fair enough to ask what the document was
    40        and you have had your answers about that, but where does it
    41        take us on food poisoning or animal welfare now you have
    42        had the explanation, for better or worse?
    43
    44   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, if one wants to spend a lot of time in
    45        one's spare time, perhaps over the weekend, attempting a
    46        reconciliation, one needs to look at page 66 (which is a
    47        different document) to the boning room.
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do not let us get involved in it now.
    50 
    51   MR. RAMPTON:  I have done it.  It is highly laborious and wholly 
    52        uninformative. 
    53
    54   MR. MORRIS:  The packed temperatures, these are temperature at
    55        the time of loading, are they not?
    56        A.  Could I have the number, please, the document
    57        reference?
    58
    59   Q.   Look at, say, 88.
    60        A.  Yes, I have that.

Prev Next Index