Day 112 - 31 Mar 95 - Page 41
1 boning hall applied for the whole period that were you
2 there?
3 A. For the last two weeks or for the second week and the
4 third week that I worked there. The third week, the third
5 chronological week I was not at the plant. I visited the
6 plant twice because of wanting to clarify some of these
7 concerns, particularly about the carcass temperatures and
8 the BSE certification, but I did not have time during those
9 visits to measure the carcass temperatures.
10
11 Q. There are just a couple more questions from me.
12 Mr. Rampton put it to you that it was just the skin
13 contamination, when there was no sterilization unit at the
14 beginning of the post-slaughter line, and you said there
15 was no sterilization there of knives that had been used
16 that were splitting the skin and going inside the
17 animal ----
18 A. Yes.
19
20 Q. --- the carcass, that it was just the skin that the
21 contamination was coming off?
22 A. Yes.
23
24 Q. Is that something that should be unimportant or something
25 that is important?
26 A. No, of course it is important. The skin is, as a rule,
27 contaminated.
28
29 Q. Contaminated with what?
30 A. With faecal contamination, particularly after
31 transport.
32
33 Q. Is faecal contamination the main concern?
34 A. Yes.
35
36 Q. As far as pathogens?
37 A. Yes.
38
39 Q. The knife that was going into the carcass, was it
40 penetrated through the skin?
41 A. Yes, it was.
42
43 Q. Into the flesh?
44 A. Yes. You cannot do bleeding without penetrating the
45 skin.
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Even if you sterilized your knife you
48 promptly make it dirty by piercing the skin then?
49 A. The general idea at the bleeding point is that there is
50 one man or a man who uses one knife and splits the skin
51 trying not to penetrate the muscle. Then another man puts
52 his knife in through the wound and severs the arteries. As
53 far as I can remember, Jarretts, the man who hoisted the
54 animal, I cannot, my recollection does not help me here,
55 I cannot remember. I have a feeling that the same man did
56 the both but he was meant to use different knives for it.
57
58 MR. MORRIS: But in any event they were not sterilized?
59 A. No. There was a problem in that area.
60
