Day 105 - 16 Mar 95 - Page 10
1 type of culture medium and a particular type of microscope
2 which enables them to recognise it.
3
4 Q. I am just going, at the moment, in the order of the
5 evidence you have already given before I branch out maybe.
6 You said you introduced these new procedures, HACCP, to
7 Jarretts or you were responsible for that development?
8 A. Yes.
9
10 Q. Why does the EEC or any responsible authority want to see
11 an HACCP programme introduced in various abattoirs, for
12 example?
13 A. It is not, in fact, a statutory requirement. The EEC
14 Directives do not require the introduction of HACCP into
15 abattoirs.
16
17 Q. But they are planning to make that statutory?
18 A. I would not even put it as strongly as that. I know
19 that discussions are going on within the Commission about
20 the introduction of HACCP, but it would in the context of
21 the present legislation be a rather different exercise to
22 the exercise that I carried out in this case at Jarretts.
23
24 Q. But the actual principle of the HACCP, why has that been
25 encouraged and embraced?
26 A. In order to update and upgrade in some people's opinion
27 the existing legislation. The existing legislation is
28 based, purely and simply, on visual examination of the meat
29 and visual examination of the environment of the
30 production.
31
32 It is becoming recognised that to have public sector
33 inspectors stood involving themselves in visual examination
34 is not, in fact, the best and most effective way of
35 controlling conditions in a food plant, and that management
36 systems based on verifiable records of what people are
37 doing, is a better way forward.
38
39 In practice, because the health inspections which are
40 carried out are absolute in identifying the major causes of
41 disease and can, by this visual examination, cover the
42 broad hygiene requirements sufficiently to put a health
43 mark on the meat, to officially verify that it is safe to
44 eat. In terms of quality control keeping "shelf life", as
45 the phrase is, and the general appearance of the meat, the
46 requirements of customers, the HACCP systems at present
47 take up where the authorities leave off.
48
49 The authorities verify that the meat is healthy and to that
50 end put a health mark on it and they certify that, but that
51 is not, in quality control terms, quite enough.
52 Because -----
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Can I stop you there?
55 A. Yes.
56
57 Q. If was a very, very wide question, so I have no doubt you
58 could go on for several hours about it. If you can keep
59 your answers very short. I would have thought the answer
60 to the question was: "In an attempt to improve food
