Day 112 - 31 Mar 95 - Page 09

     
     1        you looked at the temperature columns?
     2        A.  Yes, I have.
     3
     4   Q.   There is not a single one that comes anywhere near 7
     5        degrees centigrade, is there?
     6        A.  No, there is not.
     7
     8   Q.   What do you think it was that you measured?
     9        A.  I measured the muscle temperature on the joints before
    10         -- usually, if I measured in the boning hall, I measured
    11        while the carcass was being cut up by the band, with the
    12        band saw, to then to be divided into bits and pieces that
    13        went on the different boning tables.  That is where I made
    14        my measurements.
    15
    16        It was witnessed by the supervisor in the boning hall every
    17        time and we discussed the high temperatures that I measured
    18        several times.  He never -- obviously, I was not aware of
    19        these documents that I am seeing now since nobody showed
    20        them to me, and he did not offer to show these to me at the
         time to contradict my measurements.
    22
    23        On several occasions when I was measuring the carcass
    24        temperatures in the boning hall or in the loading bay or in
    25        the chiller where the carcasses were divided between the
    26        boning hall and the loading bay, both Mr. Stuart Jarrett
    27        and Bob Jarrett were witnessing and came over to see what
    28        measurement my thermometer showed.  We discussed it and
    29        there was -- nobody ever contradicted the fact that these
    30        carcasses were above 7 degrees centigrade.
    31
    32        We had a very co-operative meeting with them, trying to
    33        find solutions for these.  At one stage we tried to use the
    34        sheep chiller which was empty at the time to chill
    35        carcasses further, to reach acceptable temperatures.  I was
    36        prepared to be fairly lenient within the secure limits as
    37        far as temperatures were concerned.  We cut carcasses,
    38        whole carcasses, into quarters, or half carcasses into
    39        quarters, to make it possible to chill them in the sheep
    40        chiller.  That is considerably lower than the carcass
         chillers, and they would have touched the floor otherwise.
    42
    43   Q.   I am getting a little confused.  You seem to have moved out
    44        of the boning room and back into the chiller; am I right or
    45        not?
    46        A.  I did not measure carcass temperatures in the boning
    47        hall at the loading platform, and in a chiller that was
    48        used as a sorting area for the -- very commendably so, they
    49        used a chilled airspace for slaughtering the carcasses when
    50        they came out of the carcass chillers.  In many abattoirs, 
    51        this is done in non-chilled premises. 
    52 
    53   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Did you say you did not measure the carcass
    54        temperatures in the boning hall itself?
    55        A.  I did measure them in the boning hall, and I can
    56        remember very clearly at least one occasion where the
    57        supervisor in the boning hall came over when we looked at
    58        the temperatures together.  We both agreed that these
    59        temperatures are too high, but I said at least there are no
    60        statutory requirements for boning.  I was not too concerned