Day 088 - 13 Feb 95 - Page 09
1 A. Yes that is so, sir.
2
3 Q. The pigs in that middle picture look as though they have
4 sort of pink crosses on them or marks?
5 A. Yes.
6
7 Q. What is that for?
8 A. That is a Ministry requirement for when pigs come to
9 slaughter, they must have their mark.
10
11 Q. Do you ear tag your pigs?
12 A. Our sows we do, our pigs we do not.
13
14 Q. What markings do the pigs have on them at the time of
15 slaughtering?
16 A. They will have a tattoo on them for identification so
17 that one can identify them back to the farm and give full
18 traceability which is most helpful in the food end.
19
20 Q. If you turn over the page, there is a picture of some men
21 in green overalls looking as though they are fiddling with
22 machinery. That is said to be a packing line; is that
23 right?
24 A. That is correct.
25
26 Q. Then on the left it says: "This is the laboratory and the
27 new technical section building completed in 1992. Here
28 microbiological testing is carried out by quality
29 controllers". That is a picture of your actual laboratory,
30 is it?
31 A. Part of our laboratory, sir.
32
33 Q. Part of your laboratory. On the left, there is a picture
34 of some people in what is called a test panel. I will come
35 back to them in a minute, if I may? How long have you been
36 carrying out microbiological testing at your plant?
37 A. This is our second laboratory. We have had a
38 laboratory since 1978, I believe -- do not hold me to the
39 exact year -- but previous to that we did it with the
40 laboratories in Norwich.
41
42 Q. What are you testing for, what are you looking for, when
43 you do your microbiological tests?
44 A. We are looking for anything that there might be
45 detrimental to human health, basically.
46
47 Q. Give some names to some of the things that you might find?
48 A. Salmonella, Staphylococci and such things as this and
49 also we can be looking -- we have to be salmonella-free, we
50 have to be salmonella-free, and anything else that
51 might -----
52
53 Q. Do you ever find E.coli in your meat?
54 A. To my knowledge, sir, it has never been found in a pig,
55 no, E. coli 157.
56
57 Q. Going back over the page, looking at the weaners in those
58 wooden, straw filled enclosures and, indeed, looking at the
59 ones with the pink crosses on them, are pigs quite clean
60 animals?
