Day 112 - 31 Mar 95 - Page 26


     
     1
     2   MR. MORRIS:  On the right?
     3        A.  We go further, it is almost at the words, the
     4        right-hand side.
     5
     6   MR. RAMPTON:  That has a sterilization point?
     7        A.  That has one sterilization point, but there were --
     8        often the fat trimming was done, it is done by using knives
     9        but also a circular saw, that is hand-held, little circular
    10        saw that is used for trimming off the soft fat off the
    11        carcass.  This was not sterilized because there was not any
    12        proper equipment for its sterilization.  That was one point
    13        that was mentioned, I remember, earlier and I brought it up
    14        as well.
    15
    16   Q.   Where is the last point in this process at which the meat
    17        is inspected in the statutory sense?
    18        A.  Last point where it is inspected?
    19
    20   Q.   Yes.
    21        A.  As I said yesterday, the inspection can in a statutory
    22        sense happen even at the boning hall, and it was not a rare
    23        occasion where the meat inspector or myself was called to
    24        the boning hall to condemn meat that had bruising or some
    25        other conditions that might warrant condemnation in the
    26        boning hall itself.  Sometimes, the men who do the deboning
    27        come across abscesses in the boning and they obviously want
    28        to refer that immediately to the inspectors.
    29
    30   Q.   That, of course, I can well understand, but there is a
    31        statutory obligation of inspection, is there not ---
    32        A.  Yes.
    33
    34   Q.   -- for which the OVS is responsible?
    35        A.  Yes, that is right.
    36
    37   Q.   Where is the last point in the process, the chain, at which
    38        the OVS may satisfy his statutory obligation either by
    39        inspection himself or by its being done on his behalf by a
    40        meat inspector?
    41        A.  I would maintain that there is not such a point, that
    42        I would, that the OVS has a right to perform postmortem
    43        inspection at any stage until the meat leaves the plant.
    44
    45   Q.   In this plan, Ms. Hovi, we find the vet -- I do not say he
    46        is always there, or she -- at the evisceration stage?
    47        A.  Yes.
    48
    49   Q.   That is, obviously, quite a good place for the vet to be,
    50        is it not? 
    51        A.  Yes. 
    52 
    53   Q.   We see on the other side of the line -- what Mr. Morris
    54        calls the south side of the line -- the word "inspection"?
    55        A.  Yes.
    56
    57   Q.   Does that indicate that that is where an inspection would
    58        be taking place by meat inspectors?
    59        A.  That is where part of the inspection is being taken
    60        care of by -- that is usually where the meat inspectors

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