Day 296 - 07 Nov 96 - Page 26


     
     1        predominantly.  But an example of this can be...
     2
     3        I am very sorry, I have not got the full reference, but it
     4        might crop up a bit later on.  It was from the McDonald's
     5        UK, I think it was the 1995 Annual Review, it might have
     6        been the 1994 Annual Review.
     7
     8   MS. STEEL:   I think it is the 1993 Annual Review, though it
     9        might have been published in 1994.  Yes, April 1993.
    10
    11   MR. MORRIS:   Page 11 of that Annual Review.  Maybe we could ask
    12        if you could read that page again, it did come up in
    13        cross-examination.  The effect of it is, it is called a
    14        question of balance, and they talk about at the bottom of
    15        that page, second to last paragraph, "We already offer
    16        healthier options in the restaurants.  The recently
    17        introduced pizza and bran muffins, for example, have
    18        provided products high in fibre content."  Then above that,
    19        obviously, if something is 'healthier' then it implies that
    20        other options are less healthy, and this might all just be
    21        blindingly obvious but it is put that it comes from
    22        McDonald's own public document.
    23
    24        In the paragraph in the centre of that page, they just talk
    25        about "We have made significant fat reductions in our
    26        mainstream products" , et cetera, et cetera, "and we are
    27        currently looking at ways to reduce the sugar and salt
    28        content of our product."  So here we have the complete
    29        case, really; we have fat, sugar and salt being identified
    30        in their own products as being they have made their
    31        products healthier by reducing the fat, salt and sugar and
    32        they have healthier options in the restaurant, i.e.
    33        products high in fibre.  So they have stated clearly that
    34        these individual products thereby are healthier or
    35        unhealthier, depending on the level of the ingredients
    36        which we have all identified during this case.
    37
    38        So that is just an example.  Mr. Oakley kind of grappled
    39        with this issue on day 64, pages 52 to 56.  And Tim
    40        Lobstein -- well, it is not a point, really -- at the
    41        bottom of page 52 he was questioned about their leaflets
    42        were implying that their hamburgers did not have much fat
    43        really, and he said, no, they were not trying to convey
    44        that, "If we did, it would give them a totally wrong
    45        impression."  Then he said, "because the product would not
    46        taste very good.  That would put the customers off, if
    47        anything."
    48
    49        This relates to the point made by, I think, Tim Lobstein,
    50        that their foods are high in fat, salt and sugar, which are
    51        three ingredients which not only are bad for your health in
    52        any kind of quantity, but also sugar and salt are
    53        completely unnecessary, and fat is unnecessary above a very
    54        limited amount, and they have products that are high in
    55        those precisely to compensate for the poor quality of the
    56        food and the fact that it is not fresh, and all that kind
    57        of stuff.  When he said they would not taste very good if
    58        they were low in fat, the point being that shows three
    59        ingredients, fat, salt and sugar, are the, what you might
    60        call...  Not addictive, that is a bit extreme, in a way

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