Day 032 - 06 Oct 94 - Page 11


     
     1        obviously sweet or fatty foods, they are, nonetheless,
     2        eating as much sugar and fat as ever they did because this
     3        is coming back to them in other forms in their diet.
     4
     5   Q.   In your experience, is the fastfood industry a fairly new
     6        phenomenon as it is today?
     7        A.  Well, it is clearly a post-war phenomenon in a sense,
     8        but in another you could argue that fastfoods of a certain
     9        sort have been available for centuries, I would imagine.
    10        The traditions of fish and chip shops, and so on, go back
    11        to the beginning of this century and before; the pie man
    12        and others walking the Victorian streets.  So, fastfood in
    13        a sense has been with us for some time.  I would argue
    14        that the prevalence of sales' outlets of fastfood have
    15        probably increased and the quantity of fastfood as a
    16        proportion of the total diet has increased.
    17
    18   Q.   Does this have an effect on the dietary habits of the
    19        population?
    20        A.  Obviously, if fastfoods are taking a larger part of
    21        the diet than they have before, then, yes, this would have
    22        an impact, particularly if they are replacing foods with a
    23        different nutritional quality.
    24
    25   Q.   This rise of, you might call it modern fastfood
    26        consumption, has that been as a result of promotional
    27        activities by those companies?
    28        A.  It is a complex interrelationship between demand and
    29        promotion, but I would say particularly a few years ago,
    30        when I was involved mostly in writing about fastfood, we
    31        were at that stage, the mid-1980s, quite concerned at the
    32        amount by which the promotion of fastfood had increased in
    33        the previous few years.
    34
    35        We had figures indicating that -- the promotion by
    36        McDonald's, for example, had risen from about £2.5 million
    37        a year in 1981 to 1982 through to over £10 million a year
    38        by 1986/7; whereas its nearest rival was spending similar
    39        amounts, £2.5 million odd in 1982, was continuing to spend
    40        that level, £2.5 million by 1986/7.  So there were large
    41        sums being spent, but those sums were increasing, in
    42        particular, by McDonald's company.
    43
    44   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You said pounds -- those are UK figures?
    45        A.  Those are UK figures.
    46
    47   MR. MORRIS:  Talking about the 80s, would you say that the
    48        promotion of this kind of food was rising all the time?
    49        A.  There was considerable concern, I would say, amongst
    50        food people, food experts and food policy makers, and 
    51        other health makers.  There was, indeed, considerable 
    52        concern at what appeared to be a massive rise in the 
    53        prevalence of high street facilities on fastfood and the
    54        promotion of fastfood through the media.
    55
    56        In particular, there was concern about the promotion of
    57        fastfood towards children whose nutritional habits were
    58        being set in childhood and here was promotion to just that
    59        target group.  There was great concern rising during the
    60        80s at what appeared to be a fairly massive campaign at

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