Day 294 - 05 Nov 96 - Page 22


     
     1        am certainly not going to stop you putting them.  I wanted
     2        to put to you the problem I have in my mind, that a
     3        corporation which lives by producing food, is it really
     4        realistic to say that they would contemplate even an
     5        unnecessary risk of it harming their customers.
     6
     7   MS. STEEL:   I think the reality is that they would.  I mean, it
     8        is like the tobacco industry.  They are killing off all
     9        their customers, but that does not stop them selling
    10        cigarettes.
    11
    12   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That might be a argument in relation to the
    13        degenerative diseases part, because, suppose you were
    14        right, that a high fat diet leads to this risk and burgers
    15        are high fat and so on, since McDonald's whole business or
    16        virtually all of it is this food, there is nothing much you
    17        can do about that.  The equivalent to McDonald's would be
    18        Dunhill selling cigarettes without nicotine in them or
    19        tobacco in them.
    20
    21        But when you come to what they can reasonably do to avoid
    22        the risk, let us say, of food poisoning, be it cooking just
    23        a few seconds longer or to a few degrees higher, is it the
    24        same; that is the question I am posing.
    25
    26   MS. STEEL:   I think it is, because I think McDonald's are not
    27        just about selling food, they are about selling food fast,
    28        and that is what they continually hype up and make a big
    29        play of, that you come there and it is fast food, you don't
    30        have to stand around waiting.  They cannot have that amount
    31        of turnover ----
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  We are dealing with a few seconds, are we
    34        not?  What troubles me at the moment, just as a broad
    35        approach to the problem, before one gets down to the
    36        particulars of the evidence, would a corporation which not
    37        only depends upon its customers coming back, but more and
    38        more customers coming in, take an additional risk of food
    39        poisoning, albeit they are quick service restaurants, for
    40        the sake of a few seconds.  That is the matter.  I mean,
    41        you have given your answer to it, but that is the matter
    42        which troubles me.
    43
    44   MR. MORRIS:   The thing is we know how particular McDonald's are
    45        about every minute second and every minute part of every
    46        performance provided by their staff, so a few seconds for
    47        them is like, you know, a world crisis, they have to, you
    48        know, recalibrate all the machines and ----
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The point I am putting to you is they are
    51        going to have not just seconds but years and years, if the
    52        customers stop coming, are they not?
    53
    54   MR. MORRIS:   Yes.  Well, I think that is the other point, is
    55        why do customers go to McDonald's.  The food is, as we
    56        claim, mediocre at best, and the point is that whole
    57        section contrasts the nutrition and the real nature of the
    58        food with the dressing up of the food, the gimmicks, the
    59        McDonald's experience, the fast nature of it, the addition
    60        of additives.  But what has happened is that people are

Prev Next Index