Day 297 - 08 Nov 96 - Page 35
1 customer takes away and it means that they may notice the
2 information and take an interest in it and then consider
3 whether or not they want to buy food with such high levels
4 of fat on subsequent occasions; possibly even whether they
5 want to eat what they have just bought. But.....
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It may not be relevant to your point, but is
8 someone who goes into McDonald's really likely to read that
9 and pay attention to it, would you say? I would have
10 thought that people would realise there is a lot of animal
11 fat in it.
12
13 If I can make a confession, I take a much greater interest
14 in nutritional information on food packaging since I
15 started to hear this case. I cannot say I never read any
16 beforehand, but I have read much more since. I wonder
17 whether someone actually going into McDonald's, who must
18 appreciate that there is a lot of fat in a burger and a lot
19 of sugar in a thick shake, is it going to affect them, do
20 you think, even if they do read it?
21
22 MS. STEEL: It might do, it might affect some people.
23 I actually used to read nutritional information long before
24 this case started and I know other people who do. I mean,
25 there are other people who don't as well, but the point is,
26 if it is on the packaging then anybody who does want to
27 read it has the opportunity there in front of them, rather
28 than having to, you know, rummage around for leaflets which
29 they may not even know exist.
30
31 MR. MORRIS: I think there are two things here. First of all,
32 that the law seems to be, I cannot remember now, I think
33 Professor Wheelock did deal with it, where we compared it
34 to supermarkets or those kinds of packaged and processed
35 goods, the ingredients have to be displayed. I think
36 actually we asked Mr. Gardener about this, from America,
37 and the point was evidence has been heard that McDonald's
38 goods are so standardised and so packaged that they could
39 have applied ----
40
41 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Someone has made that point already.
42
43 MR. MORRIS: Yes. The point I would like to say is that this
44 is in a section on whether they are being deceptive as to
45 what they put out and what they leave out and it would be
46 an indication that they were acting responsibly, as they
47 have said by supporting the health of the nation
48 initiative, in trying to educate the public by their
49 products, by putting not only the ingredients on the
50 packaging, but also, you know, the implications of the kind
51 of food that people are eating, in their literature.
52
53 So I think it is important and the lack of doing it shows
54 that it is something they are trying to hide from the
55 customers, and they are not really supporting the health of
56 the nation initiative, as it was at the time.
57
58 MS. STEEL: Professor Keene agreed that it was desirable to
59 display information as to food nutrient content in terms of
60 fat, calories, et cetera. That was day 29, page 12.
