Day 106 - 23 Mar 95 - Page 48
1
2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Could I just make sure I understand one thing
3 you have said? You said the ideal way to transport meat is
4 in separate carcasses?
5 A. Yes, I believe that to be so.
6
7 Q. So you are saying that McKey's should have deboning in
8 their plant, rather than allow it to be deboned at the
9 abattoir, are you, because that is what happens, is it not?
10 A. Yes. Whether it is commercially or economically
11 realistic, I somewhat doubt, but the ideal is basically the
12 traditional way. We have small abattoirs linked to a known
13 limited number of farms where the whole carcass is
14 transported to whatever butchers, where parts are used as
15 primal cuts and the others are then processed virtually on
16 the site, minimising transport and giving you an
17 identifiable sequence right through the chain.
18
19 We did find this, you do read this in the old reports of
20 food poisoning outbreaks. You get food poisoning in the
21 local community; you go down to the single butcher and you
22 find the particular cow or the particular beast he handled
23 on the day, and within hours you are on the actual farm and
24 dealing on the farm with the problem, being able to trace
25 it back.
26
27 What you lose out of this concentration, this
28 industrialisation process, is you lose that facility and
29 its intensification creates a public health problem which
30 has been noted by many, many authorities.
31
32 So McKey's, and then to the shop ----
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34 MS. STEEL: Sorry, whilst you were at McKey's, what type of meat
35 did you see?
36 A. Well, the large part of the bins I saw were
37 diaphragm -- sorry, flank. I noted that I saw some
38 diaphragm. I have seen the subsequent record that disputes
39 this. All I can say is I know what I saw.
40
41 Q. Do you have any experience in distinguishing between
42 different cuts of meat and different types of meat?
43 A. Well, through my training as an Environmental Health
44 Officer one is examined on these matters after six months
45 practical experience, and very rigorously examined. Then
46 I spent 20 years as a food inspector. I suggest I would
47 know the primal cuts, I would know the primal muscles,
48 I would know what I was seeing. That is all I can say,
49 that with 20 years I know what I am talking about. I know
50 what I saw.
51
52 Q. Are you capable of judging the age of the beef from looking
53 at the ----
54 A. No, you cannot. You can do it chemically. There are
55 certain tests you can, but really you need the head and the
56 teeth to make a good judgment.
57
58 Q. Can you just explain in terms of what is there what you
59 saw?
60 A. Well, I say I judged it to be old cow meat largely
