Day 294 - 05 Nov 96 - Page 22
1 am certainly not going to stop you putting them. I wanted
2 to put to you the problem I have in my mind, that a
3 corporation which lives by producing food, is it really
4 realistic to say that they would contemplate even an
5 unnecessary risk of it harming their customers.
6
7 MS. STEEL: I think the reality is that they would. I mean, it
8 is like the tobacco industry. They are killing off all
9 their customers, but that does not stop them selling
10 cigarettes.
11
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That might be a argument in relation to the
13 degenerative diseases part, because, suppose you were
14 right, that a high fat diet leads to this risk and burgers
15 are high fat and so on, since McDonald's whole business or
16 virtually all of it is this food, there is nothing much you
17 can do about that. The equivalent to McDonald's would be
18 Dunhill selling cigarettes without nicotine in them or
19 tobacco in them.
20
21 But when you come to what they can reasonably do to avoid
22 the risk, let us say, of food poisoning, be it cooking just
23 a few seconds longer or to a few degrees higher, is it the
24 same; that is the question I am posing.
25
26 MS. STEEL: I think it is, because I think McDonald's are not
27 just about selling food, they are about selling food fast,
28 and that is what they continually hype up and make a big
29 play of, that you come there and it is fast food, you don't
30 have to stand around waiting. They cannot have that amount
31 of turnover ----
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We are dealing with a few seconds, are we
34 not? What troubles me at the moment, just as a broad
35 approach to the problem, before one gets down to the
36 particulars of the evidence, would a corporation which not
37 only depends upon its customers coming back, but more and
38 more customers coming in, take an additional risk of food
39 poisoning, albeit they are quick service restaurants, for
40 the sake of a few seconds. That is the matter. I mean,
41 you have given your answer to it, but that is the matter
42 which troubles me.
43
44 MR. MORRIS: The thing is we know how particular McDonald's are
45 about every minute second and every minute part of every
46 performance provided by their staff, so a few seconds for
47 them is like, you know, a world crisis, they have to, you
48 know, recalibrate all the machines and ----
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The point I am putting to you is they are
51 going to have not just seconds but years and years, if the
52 customers stop coming, are they not?
53
54 MR. MORRIS: Yes. Well, I think that is the other point, is
55 why do customers go to McDonald's. The food is, as we
56 claim, mediocre at best, and the point is that whole
57 section contrasts the nutrition and the real nature of the
58 food with the dressing up of the food, the gimmicks, the
59 McDonald's experience, the fast nature of it, the addition
60 of additives. But what has happened is that people are
