Day 064 - 08 Dec 94 - Page 61
1 Q. We have seen it. Take my word for it, we have analysed
2 leaflets that have got it in. If you take your lead from
3 America and you support, as you claim to do, the Health of
4 the Nation initiative which is part of educating the public
5 about diet and ill health, would you say it would be
6 helpful to the customer if you did put dietary targets in
7 your leaflets?
8 A. It may enhance what we are currently doing. I did say
9 to Ms. Steel earlier that when she said "Are you happy with
10 this leaflet" that we can always improve it and we could
11 improve it further.
12
13 Q. Have you considered selling, for example, something like
14 fruit in your stores, having a fruit bowl in your stores?
15 A. We have considered it.
16
17 Q. What happened with that?
18 A. We found it was not very practical. We are not quite
19 sure how we would serve it. It does not really fit in with
20 the way we do business.
21
22 Q. Why does it not fit in?
23 A. Well, you know the system fairly well. We operate
24 quick service restaurants in pre-packaged products over the
25 counter. If you put a fruit bowl in there there could be
26 mayhem at the front counter frankly.
27
28 Q. I do not quite follow that. Here we have an item which is
29 basically what you might call fast-food, fresh fast-food,
30 an apple, for example, I would have thought that would fit
31 in perfectly well. Where does the mayhem come from?
32 A. Operationally we are not sure how we would handle it,
33 that is what I am saying.
34
35 Q. If you were concerned about broadening your menu and what
36 you said in that leaflet about "having a responsibility to
37 help our customers eat a healthy balanced diet and
38 supporting the Health of the Nation initiative" which, of
39 course, is strongly in favour of encouraging the
40 consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables, is it not?
41 A. As part of a balanced diet, yes.
42
43 Q. Then something like a fruit bowl would be a good
44 development?
45 A. Yes. I do not want to prolong the answer and it is not
46 quite as simple as you make out. It is something we may
47 consider again in the future. We do have a fruit bowl in
48 our staff restaurant which serves traditional McDonald's
49 products. The fact is the take-up from that fruit bowl is
50 very small. We try out lots of ideas through the
51 McDonald's restaurant in the headquarters. It is not
52 something that jumps up at you and says "Wow! we must do
53 this". It is very, very small take-up.
54
55 Q. What have you done in reality since you said that you
56 support the Health of the Nation initiative?
57 A. I think in reality we reduced the fat in cheese, and we
58 changed to vegetable shortening.
59
60 Q. That was as a direct result of the Health of the Nation
