Day 266 - 20 Jun 96 - Page 15
1 therefore there is little that people can do to influence
2 their intake. Thus, any attempts to influence the amount
3 of salt in food must be directed at the food industry.
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What are you looking at now?
6
7 MS STEEL: Sorry, the first paragraph of 'salt and blood
8 pressure revisited'.
9
10 MR. MORRIS: What page is it?
11 A. 1,240.
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I have got, I have a bundle this week in
14 BMJ, and there are a number of articles. You are 'salt an
15 blood pressure revisited' are you?
16
17 MS. STEEL: Yes.
18
19 MR. MORRIS: It is the third page.
20
21 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
22
23 MS. STEEL: Yes it says, "... with 3 quarters of the presently
24 consumed salt well hidden in processed food there is little
25 that people can do to influence their intake. Thus any
26 attempts to influence the amount of salt in food must be
27 directed at the food industry." Do you have any comment on
28 that; would you agree with it?
29 A. Absolutely, yes. The food industry is known to use a
30 lot of salt within their foods. There have been campaigns
31 over many years to try and get that reduced. But, yes, in
32 order to achieve levels of salt reduction which would
33 improve peoples' health then the food industry would have
34 to reduce the amount of salt that it currently uses in its
35 foods.
36
37 Q. Right. In processed foods?
38 A. In processed foods, yes. In foods that people buy in
39 supermarkets and get as take-aways, yes.
40
41 Q. Right.
42
43 MR. MORRIS: Could I ask a question? The paragraph above 'salt
44 and blood pressure revisited', at the end of the previous
45 article by Fiona Godley, the assistant editor of the
46 British Medical Journal, they are talking about--
47 A. What page is that please?
48
49 Q. This is on the same page we were on before, 1,240. It
50 says, talking about the paragraph above that talked about
51 the salt content of food in America declining, "10 to 15
52 per cent over the past 12 years". Then it says, "Despite
53 these trends, Governments have a tough job ahead. The
54 world's food and soft drinks industry spent over £550M in
55 advertising in 1994". I think McDonald's advertising
56 budget is 1.8 billion dollars a year globally last year.
57
58 (Continuing to read): "...compared with less than £5M
59 on promoting fresh fruit and vegetables. In Britain basic
60 cooking skills are in decline as processed foods make up
