Day 032 - 06 Oct 94 - Page 34
1 track it down.
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, leave it for the moment.
4
5 MR. MORRIS: I think that is all the surveys that we were going
6 to refer to.
7
8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We can break off there. What have you got
9 to do next with Dr. Lobstein?
10
11 MR. MORRIS: Well, we are moving through the statements he has
12 made and then there is a whole lot of other matters to
13 deal with, things that have happened in the case that we
14 have already heard in court, comments and things like
15 that. We should be finished by the end of the day, I
16 should think.
17
18 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I will come back at 5 to 2.
19
20 (The Court Adjourned)
21
22 1.55 p.m.
23
24 MR. MORRIS: In your statement, Dr. Lobstein, what we were
25 talking about before lunch is that for an increasing
26 number of people McDonald's meals represent an increasing
27 part of the diet, and that for some parts of the
28 population it already represents a sufficiently large part
29 of the diet, enough to justify the concerns expressed
30 against the promotion of McDonald's meals. Would you like
31 to elaborate on that statement?
32 A. Yes. I assume it is not denied that the sheer
33 quantity of meals served by McDonald's in this country has
34 risen dramatically during the last twenty years,
35 therefore, for the general population it would, indeed,
36 provide an increasing proportion of the diet as an
37 average. From the evidence that we were looking at
38 earlier, particularly the Peckham study, I would say that
39 there are parts of the population, younger and lower
40 income, perhaps living in low income areas, who are likely
41 to be particularly consuming large quantities of this sort
42 of diet.
43
44 Q. Are you saying that McDonald's has a responsibility
45 because of its sheer size and/or that it is a major
46 promoter of this kind of food?
47 A. It is an awkward question, but I think one would not
48 expect a company purely concerned with the production of
49 confectionery, perhaps, to take responsibility for the
50 overall diet that they offer, but I would suggest that a
51 company offering what it by its own term might call
52 "nutritious" but which it is offering as a full meal
53 should take some responsibility for the quality of the
54 nutrition they provide. So, yes, I would argue that
55 because of the frequency and the image that it projects
56 that there is a responsibility there.
57
58 Q. Is it projecting an image for a type of food?
59 A. Sorry, is?
60
