Day 032 - 06 Oct 94 - Page 48
1 MR. MORRIS: The top right hand corner inside. "To help all
2 our customers eat healthily, we are constantly making our
3 menu even more nutritious".
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. Read the whole paragraph.
6
7 MR. MORRIS: "Our first aim is to reduce the amount of fat in
8 some menu items, whilst not affecting the quality or the
9 taste". I do not want to read it all; I do not think it
10 is relevant. The point I am making, the question I am
11 asking, is what is the implication of that phrase to a
12 customer reading this leaflet?
13
14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, but you are supposed to be helping me
15 as well. What you should do, especially as Mr. Rampton
16 asks (and he should do the same if you ask him) is read
17 the whole of what both parties want before me, so I can
18 read the whole of it. Then you are perfectly at liberty
19 to go to the particular phrase you want to focus on, but
20 I have the general picture before we go to the particular.
21
22 MR. MORRIS: Right, OK. I will read out that section: "To
23 help all our customers to eat healthily, we are constantly
24 making our menu even more nutritious. Our first aim is to
25 reduce the amount of fat in some menu items, whilst not
26 affecting the quality or the taste.
27
28 So far we have replaced the lard in our buns with
29 vegetable oil, and we now use water-based instead of
30 oil-based dressings. We have also reduced the amount of
31 fat in our cheese slices, and are looking at ways to
32 reduce the salt and sugar in our menu".
33
34 To go back to the first sentence: "To help all our
35 customers eat healthily", my emphasis, "we are constantly
36 making our menu even more nutritious". What is your
37 conclusion of the implication of that statement in terms
38 of the present situation?
39 A. In terms of the present situation it would imply that
40 they have some mileage to go, and that they are seeing
41 some ways in which they can do that. I would also say
42 that I think the first phrasing is unfortunate as it
43 implies that customers are already eating fairly healthily
44 and that this is only a little bit more beyond that. I
45 suspect that is somewhat -- an ambiguity they wanted to
46 put in there.
47
48 Q. I can put words into your mouth -- it does not make it as
49 strong -- would you say that implies that their food is
50 nutritious, if they are going to make it even more
51 nutritious?
52 A. I could see that you could argue that. I tend to read
53 this the other way round, which is that they are
54 acknowledging that their food is not particularly
55 nutritious and that they have some way to go yet.
56
57 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I must say, we have all to get our own
58 meanings. My response has been different to yours on both
59 scores so far, because there they are, "to help our
60 customers eat healthily", assumes that they are people who
