Day 012 - 18 Jul 94 - Page 44
1 Q. "Reduced the salt in breakfast sausages; eliminated
monosodium glutamate". Does your nutritional wisdom,
2 Mr. Horwitz, extend far enough to know whether it is -- to
know whether it matters what form the sodium takes that
3 one ingests so far as a healthy diet is concerned?
A. It does not.
4
Q. So monosodium glutamate or sodium chloride, which is
5 ordinary kitchen salt?
A. My understanding is that the essential words in both
6 of those is sodium.
7 Q. " Eliminated monosodium glutamate from chicken McNuggets
and some McNugget sauces, and from sausages and several
8 salad dressings; and made changes in operational
procedures that reduce the amount of salt applied to
9 hamburgers at the time of cooking". Do you happen to know
when those operational changes were introduced?
10 A. My recollection was that those were implemented either
at or prior to the time these advertisements were
11 distributed, and in terms of salt being applied the salt,
instead of being applied to both sides of the hamburger,
12 was cut in half and applied to only one side. I also want
to mention, if I might, in terms of the sausage products,
13 sodium being reduced there, like pickles, the sausages are
in a number of McDonald's breakfast products.
14
Q. We will just finish this footnote: "Moreover, McDonald's
15 customers can order any McDonald's food item without added
salt or condiments -- a point stressed in the very
16 advertisement to which you refer". Without going back to
it, Mr. Horwitz, in fact the advertisement mentioned only
17 two of these measures taken to reduce the amount of
sodium, did it not?
18 A. Yes, it did.
19 Q. It mentioned the availability of no added salt upon
request and it mentioned a reduction in pickles and
20 sausages?
A. That is correct.
21
Q. Pickles and sausages?
22 A. That is correct.
23 Q. Now can we go on to page 160, that is page 4 of the
letter? This is the second specific advertisement
24 objected to: "Your objections with respect to the
contents of a McDonald's milkshake, as described in the
25 real milk advertisement, are also unfounded. McDonald's
stands by its description of the contents. The
26 advertisement noted that the milkshakes contain a fluid
ounce of flavoring. The flavorings contain a small amount
27 of preservative, sodium benzoate, to protect the syrups
while they are being transported in their original
28 containers from the suppliers' manufacturing plants to the
restaurants. Sodium hexametaphosphate referred to in your
29 letter is not a preservative but a stabilizer that
inhibits the formation of ice crystals in the milkshake."
30 You will recall, Mr. Horwitz, we saw mention of the
presence of stabilizers in the advertisement?
