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.

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