Day 217 - 09 02 96 - Page 27

 
 

                                                                  DAY 217
 
                                                     MRS. HOVI, Examined:
 
 
 
     1   Q.   What proportion of carcasses went in part to France, that
     2        is, these fore quarters, half carcasses or, rather, they
     3        are not half carcasses because they have been split already
     4        but they are quarters?
     5        A.  Yes, quarters, yes.  I would not want to say anything
     6        on that.  I worked there such a short time that I would
     7        find it difficult to quantify that.
     8
     9   Q.   Yes.
    10        A.  Shall we go on?
    11
    12   Q.   Yes.
    13        A.  In paragraph No. 32 on page 17, starting on page 17 and
    14        carrying on to page 18, Mr. Bone says that there were no
    15        previous complaints about the over-crowdedness of the
    16        chillers, and I do admit that MAFF reports had never
    17        expressed any concern on this issue.  But, as I said
    18        already before, the MAFF audits are usually announced about
    19        a month beforehand, and there has been -- a concern had
    20        been expressed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Inspector on
    21        a previous visit that the abattoir was obviously working on
    22        a lower through put on the day that he visited it.
    23
    24   MR. MORRIS:  Lower through put?
    25        A.  Yes, and that probably would have led to the fact that
    26        there was no crowdedness in the chillers.  When I was
    27        working at Jarrets, the over-crowdedness of the chillers
    28        was a daily problem.  His claim that this practice was safe
    29        as the carcasses were swabbed regularly by the outside
    30        laboratory, and the results from those swabs were not
    31        unacceptable.
    32
    33   Q.   I did not understand that.
    34        A.  Yes, I am going to carry on.
    35
    36   Q.   Right.
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes?
    39        A.  The swabbing of one carcass every fortnight is not a
    40        safety procedure, it just does not guarantee anything.
    41        Swabbing of carcasses would have to be a daily procedure if
    42        it was to establish any standards at an abattoir of this
    43        through put.
    44
    45        Then in paragraph 33, we are still talking about the
    46        chillers from the structural point of view.  Mr. Bone says
    47        that he did not feel that there was anything wrong with the
    48        surfaces in the chillers.  In my opinion, and I stated it
    49        in various reports to the management and discussed it with
    50        the MAFF inspectors as well, and they agreed, there was a 
    51        serious problem of rusting of the overhead rails at the 
    52        doorways, peeling of paint at the doorways, where the 
    53        carcasses touched the doorways, and there was a
    54        deterioration of the silicone ceiling between the stainless
    55        steel and the plastic wall materials.
    56
    57        Paragraph 34, page 19, we are talking about the boning hall
    58        and the crowdedness of the boning hall again and the
    59        through put there.  We discussed that matter.  I think
    60        I have said everything I want on that already.
 
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