Day 217 - 09 02 96 - Page 34
DAY 217
MRS. HOVI, Examined:
1 change overnight; it was a question of training the
2 slaughtermen into different working practices.
3
4 Q. Just one other question I was going to ask you about one of
5 the documents disclosed, to explain what it means. It is
6 in appendix 3. Probably, it is explained in Mr. Jarret's
7 statement anyway. I cannot find which bit it was.
8 Appendix 3, can you explain what that document is? It is
9 referring to paragraph 30, ambient temperatures.
10 A. Yes. These are automatic readings that are taken from
11 all the chilling halls, chilling rooms, throughout the day,
12 24 hours a day, and if the chilling rooms are functioning;
13 and this records the ambient temperature in those rooms.
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You have nothing to say about that?
16 A. No.
17
18 MR. MORRIS: The temperatures should be below what?
19 A. There is no regulation about what the temperatures
20 should be. The importance with these temperatures is that
21 they should not be too cold to prevent the meat from cold
22 shortening and becoming very tough; and that is the reason
23 why meat needs to be chilled for 48 hours rather than
24 24 hours. If you try and chill the meat to under 7 degrees
25 Centigrade in 24 hours, you are going to have to use
26 extremely ambient temperatures and you are going to cause
27 cold shortening, which makes the meat very tough; and that
28 is why this whole problem arises.
29
30 So there is no regulations as far as the ambient
31 temperatures are concerned. They just have to be adequate
32 to chill the amount of meat that is in the chiller in 48
33 hours to under 7 degrees Centigrade.
34
35 It depends very much on the speed of the air, on the kind
36 of fanning system there is in the chilling rooms. So they
37 are no strict regulations on that.
38
39 I was quite happy with the temperatures which were used at
40 Jarrets. The only thing was that they were trying to chill
41 too much meat in too short a time, and they did not manage
42 to do it.
43
44 Q. Which are the chillers are relevant for us to -----
45 A. For beef.
46
47 Q. Which chillers?
48 A. 6 and 5, mainly.
49
50 Q. 5 and 6 are the relevant chillers?
51 A. Yes.
52
53 Q. Is there any concern, for example, about -----
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You have been told there is no concern.
56 Obviously, the temperature goes up and down. Your own
57 witness said on the last occasion that when you put a lot
58 of carcasses in, the temperature of the chiller comes up.
59 So we are going to find some high temperatures and some low
60 temperatures. But your own witness on this has said that
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