Day 030 - 03 Oct 94 - Page 35
1 extent in the States. There is a limit, of course, as to
2 what you can do with products like that.
3
4 Q. The question I am asking is, if a company says they
5 support recommendations on healthy eating, what does that
6 mean in practice to you?
7 A. Well, it would depend on the company.
8
9 Q. As a public health policy expression?
10 A. It would depend on the product of the firm. If the
11 firm in question was producing products whose nutritional
12 profile was clearly unhealthy, as judged in this case by
13 government, and that firm said it supported the views, in
14 this case, of the health of the nation, then I would
15 expect they would be seeking to do something practical to
16 change the quality of the food, given that it is the food
17 firm, the food that they manufactured or distributed or
18 sold, whatever. Do you wish me to apply this to
19 McDonald's particularly?
20
21 Q. We do not have to now go into whether McDonald's food is
22 ----
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What Professor Wheelock said, or one of the
25 things he said was that there is a limited extent to which
26 you can expect a significant part of the population to
27 change their diet just because they read it would be
28 sensible to do so. A significant part of the population
29 may not have read, however widely publicised it is. A
30 good way of doing that is to see if those who provide the
31 food for them to eat at the outlets which they choose to
32 use can make changes in their own food. Of course, they
33 have to make the changes so as not to defer their
34 customers from coming to their outlets to eat it or their
35 stores to buy it. What McDonald's has sought to do in
36 certain instances is to change the ingredients without the
37 customer actually -----?
38 A. Noticing.
39
40 Q. Appreciating that the flavour has changed.
41 A. Yes.
42
43 Q. So it is just as palatable.
44 A. Yes, and they are doing that in common with other
45 manufacturers as well, which need not be mentioned here.
46 As an anecdote, I remember that Professor Sushma Palmer,
47 who was director of the National Academy of Sciences, Food
48 and Nutrition Board at the time of these two major reports
49 were produced, happens to be married to the Hungarian
50 Ambassador, or the American who was the American
51 Ambassador to Hungary until recently, Mark Palmer. She
52 addressed with him a large conference in Budapest not so
53 long ago with which McDonald's was concerned. She stated
54 she would be very unhappy to do that in her position
55 unless and until McDonald's were prepared to serve salads
56 in all their restaurants. Whether or not that happened
57 throughout Hungary, and indeed how many outlets McDonald's
58 have in Hungary I do not know.
59
60 The point I am making from that anecdote is that a firm
