Day 032 - 06 Oct 94 - Page 62
1 Department of Health's document of 1994?
2 A. There may be very little difference. I would argue
3 that a lot of manufacturers put out healthy eating
4 guidelines in their own versions in order to discharge
5 what they see as their responsibility. I do not see that
6 as sufficient discharging of their responsibility.
7
8 Q. What, in your view, must a company like McDonald's do?
9 Should they put a health warning on their shop fronts?
10 A. I think they are beginning to take steps towards
11 greater responsibility by their reformulation of foods.
12 That is beginning to acknowledge that they actually do
13 control what people are eating in that sense. I also
14 think they could yet take greater responsibility in the
15 means by which they promote food, the sorts of foods
16 available on their menu; the promotion of those foods, the
17 pricing of those foods, and so forth. Various experiments
18 may have been tried but they have not perhaps all been
19 successful, for example, low fat burgers, salad bars as in
20 Italy, but I would like to see the encouragement of those
21 sorts of activities by the manufacturer.
22
23 Q. You are conscious that McDonald's have been doing that
24 over a period of time, perhaps not as fast as you would
25 like, but it is so, is it not?
26 A. I would say it is only in the late 80s and perhaps now
27 in the 90s that they are making these efforts. I think it
28 was legitimate in the mid-80s (that is why I wrote the
29 book) to try to encourage them to do that under consumer
30 pressure.
31
32 Q. What I was going to ask you was this: Your postulation
33 was that they had only done what they did because of
34 people like you, activists', pressure groups, people
35 prodding them to do it, otherwise they would not have done
36 it?
37 A. It is very difficult to see cause and effect, but I
38 would argue that a similar case occurred in America where
39 the publication by an independent group of the ingredients
40 of McDonald's foods led to the pamphlet issued by
41 McDonald's in America which, in turn, led to us publishing
42 a book about the ingredients of McDonald's foods which in
43 turn led to McDonald's releasing, having said they would
44 not release, the ingredients information in their own
45 pamphlet.
46
47 Q. When you say "led to" do you mean followed by?
48 A. I have to say "followed by" -- I cannot prove the
49 internal discussions in McDonald's.
50
51 Q. It is a boring thing that I had to raise with another
52 witness. You are aware of the logical fallacy of post hoc
53 procter hoc, are you not?
54 A. Of course.
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is impossible to tease out whether it is
57 the goodwill of the manufacturer, pressure from particular
58 groups or a growing general awareness of the importance of
59 something? A pressure group would like to say ----
60 A. Absolutely.
