Day 003 - 30 Jun 94 - Page 13


     
     1   Q.   Then it goes on:  "... is linked with cancers of the
              breast and bowel, and heart disease.  This is accepted
     2        medical fact, not a cranky theory."
 
     3        Mr. Preston, may I ask you this:  Do you have a concern,
              as head of a very large food service organisation in this
     4        country, that the food that you are selling to your
              customers may be causing them heart disease, cancer and
     5        diabetes?
              A.  I do not.
     6
         Q.   Why is that?
     7        A.  The food we sell is made of the components every man,
              woman and child might find in their own pantry or
     8        refrigerator; beef, bread, milk, potatoes, chicken, eggs,
              lettuce, orange juice, mineral water.  I find those
     9        commodities in every household I have ever visited.  They
              are the commodities on which mankind has built their
    10        diet.  Eaten in balance, as I said earlier, with sleep and
              exercise, they are perfectly safe, perfectly healthy.
    11
         Q.   Do you know of evidence to suggest that if a person,
    12        whether it be a child or an adult, were to eat one, two,
              three or even five or six McDonald's meals in a week, that
    13        that kind of intake, as part of a balanced diet, is apt to
              cause that person degenerative disease of the kind that
    14        I have mentioned?
              A.  The opposite is true; it would make no effect
    15        whatsoever.
 
    16   Q.   Can we move on down the pamphlet?  I will just read the
              rest of it:  "This is accepted medical fact, not a cranky
    17        theory.  Every year in Britain, heart disease alone causes
              about 180,000 deaths."  I pause there, Mr. Preston.  I ask
    18        you this, do you feel any responsibility for any of those
              alleged 180,000 deaths?
    19        A.  No.
 
    20   Q.   It goes on:  "Fast = junk.  Even if they like eating them,
              most people recognise that processed burgers and synthetic
    21        chips, served up in paper and plastic containers", and so
              on and so forth.  About the chips, what we in this case
    22        must call "french fries" or "fries", Mr. Preston, must we
              not?
    23        A.  They are french fries in our vernacular, yes.
 
    24   Q.   Chips, potatoes in the old language -- are they synthetic?
              A.  No.  They are made from whole potato.  They are not
    25        ground up and put back again, mashed in any way.  They are
              natural.  It is what comes out of the earth and is peeled, 
    26        washed and blanched.  We do to them just what you would do 
              to them at home. 
    27
         Q.   What variety of potato do you use?
    28        A.  We use two here.
 
    29   Q.   Which are they?
              A.  We use the Pentland Dell, and the Burbank Russet; it
    30        depends on the time of year.
 

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