Day 217 - 09 02 96 - Page 26

 
 

                                                                  DAY 217
 
                                                     MRS. HOVI, Examined:
 
 
 
     1        other explanation, but I would imagine that that could be
     2        the case.  I mean, even so, those hind quarters were boned
     3        in that cutting room at that temperature.
     4
     5   Q.   I understand that, I am not trying to brush away your point
     6        but -----
     7        A.  And, like I said just before the break, that some of
     8        the carcasses from the sorting room, the chill room No. 1,
     9        did go in the chill room No. 2, if there was no need for
    10        meat to cut in the cutting room at the moment, so they
    11        would go in for further chilling.  In our negotiations with
    12        Jarrets to solve the problem of the exported carcasses that
    13        were far too, which temperatures were far too high, as
    14        admitted by the Jarrets themselves, we did consider the
    15        possibility of using the chill room No. 2 as a further
    16        chilling facility for the exported meat as well.  At the
    17        time they were saying that that was used at the time just
    18        for boned meat.
    19
    20   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  When you took meat temperatures, did you get
    21        some which were below 7?
    22        A.  Yes, yes.  For example, on Mondays we would feel quite
    23        safe, since the carcasses had been chilled for more than 24
    24        hours.
    25
    26   Q.   Another explanation, if I were to accept your evidence that
    27        you found some meat above 7, would be if on some occasions
    28        the meat had been in a chiller for 24 hours rather than 48,
    29        might that be an explanation of it?
    30        A.  Yes, that was the explanation that we recognised.  We
    31        identified this problem when we were trying to solve the
    32        problem of despatching carcasses too warm, and it was
    33        explained to me by Jarrets that they had to do this because
    34        they did not have adequate chilling space.
    35
    36   Q.   Did not have?
    37        A.  Adequate chilling space to chill the through put that
    38        they were putting through 48 hours which would be the
    39        normal procedure in the meat industry.
    40
    41   Q.   Yes.
    42        A.  At the time of my dismissal, I had already agreed with
    43        Jarrets into a new procedure where we would chill the
    44        carcasses, where the loading would happen in the evening
    45        rather than in the morning, and that would give an
    46        additional 10 to 12 hours of chilling time for the
    47        carcasses.
    48
    49   Q.   That is the loading at despatch?
    50        A.  Yes, that is right.  But the whole flow of the 
    51        carcasses in the abattoir was, obviously, dependent on how 
    52        fast carcasses could be dispatched from the -- both when it 
    53        concerns the carcasses, the material that goes into the
    54        cutting room.
    55
    56   Q.   What, in the sense that if the despatch is in the evening,
    57        the hind quarters are going to have been in the chiller for
    58        about 13 hours longer?
    59        A.  Yes, that is right.
    60
 
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