Day 296 - 07 Nov 96 - Page 32
1 And that frying oil was changed.... I seem to have the
2 wrong date here, because Professor Wheelock gave evidence
3 in July, and it says that frying oil was changed in
4 September 1994 so I must have made a wrong note, because of
5 the significant effect of saturated fats and amount of
6 saturated fat in the frying oil previously. In any event,
7 whatever the date is, the reference is day 15, page 15, so
8 I can check that. It was obviously only a recent change.
9
10 Professor Wheelock at the stage almost went as far as to
11 say that eating McDonald's food two or three times a week
12 will be enough to jeopardise the dietary recommendations if
13 someone was eating the most fatty items of McDonald's
14 food. He then retreated from that position, saying that he
15 did not know what people ate and that other types of food
16 were more healthy.
17
18 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Was not the answer, which might have been
19 most helpful to you on this line of what he would accept
20 and what he would not, in answer to the question I asked
21 him about what he would say to a friend or a member of his
22 family about how often they should eat at McDonald's at the
23 most? What did it end up as? Once a week or something
24 like that?
25
26 MR. MORRIS: I can't remember.
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Anyway, I have a note of it in a notebook in
29 my room. But it was more favourable to you than the
30 statement you have just made, was it not?
31
32 MS. STEEL: The point I was going to make on this point, that
33 comment about we don't know what people were eating and
34 other types of food at McDonald's were more healthy - and
35 that was on day 15, page 21 - is the point that the
36 so-called healthy options that McDonald's introduced in
37 order to improve the nutritive value of their food were
38 options that are introduced after the time of the alleged
39 libel.
40
41 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That last bit was, did you say, day 15, page
42 21?
43
44 MS. STEEL: Yes.
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
47
48 MS. STEEL: Later on, Professor Wheelock seemed to accept that
49 if you ate a typical McDonald's meal once a day you would
50 have to be very careful about balancing the rest of your
51 diet. That was on day 15, page 22. This is an important
52 point which we think raises a very contentious issue in
53 this part of the case, which is if the Plaintiffs know this
54 about having to be extremely careful, and since Professor
55 Wheelock is their consultant they must know this, then
56 surely they should come under a special duty to ensure that
57 members of the public have the fullest and most accurate
58 and most cautious information available to them.
59 Obviously, that relates to the point about rather than
60 promoting their food as nutritious, warning the public of
