Day 032 - 06 Oct 94 - Page 58
1 to make manufacturers take some responsibility for those
2 trends, but not for absolute figures.
3
4 Q. That is a comment which applies and, no doubt, would be
5 accepted by me as applying validly to what one might call
6 the nutrition and health of the nation at large, is it
7 not?
8 A. And, in particular, those groups that we have been
9 focusing on earlier today.
10
11 Q. You might even point a finger at fast food, I do not
12 know. What it comes to is this, that before you,
13 Dr. Lobstein, from your position of expertise, are able to
14 level a criticism at McDonald's for providing the nation
15 with food which is dangerous to its health, you need to
16 have data, do you not, about the frequency with which
17 people in this country and elsewhere in the world eat
18 McDonald's food?
19 A. I am not sure that follows, because I would argue that
20 if someone was producing something that was outrageously
21 harmful to health, one would not have to show it was being
22 eaten frequently, and would have to show that the
23 manufacturer should take responsibility.
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: In the context of this case.
26 A. In the context of this case, one has examples already
27 from overseas, for example, America where these foods have
28 been promoted heavily and where the overall consumption is
29 now much higher than it is here, so one sees a trend
30 possibly developing, potentially developing, against which
31 one might want to argue and encourage a greater
32 responsibility before it becomes a fact.
33
34 MR. RAMPTON: Dr. Lobstein, can we please stop talking about
35 these foods? This case is about McDonald's food amongst
36 other things. Do you have any reliable data to suggest
37 that people are eating McDonald's foods in excessive
38 quantities, that is to say, too frequently?
39 A. I would argue the Peckham study, for example, showed
40 cases where people were eating foods, including those of
41 McDonald's and McDonald's constituted a large proportion,
42 too frequently.
43
44 Q. Leaving aside the Peckham sample, perhaps I can leave it
45 with this question: You would agree, would you not, with
46 these two criticisms which might be made of it, with
47 anybody with a knowledge of statistics and market
48 research, first, that the sample was tiny, 385 people I
49 think it was?
50 A. Most MORI polls are around 1,000 so it is not that
51 tiny.
52
53 Q. I am coming back to the size of the sample later in the
54 context of research into McDonald's own customer base.
55 Second, that there was an inbuilt bias into the survey
56 because the questions were asked of people leaving the
57 fast food outlets?
58 A. I acknowledge that we were looking particularly to see
59 if cases were present.
60
