Day 032 - 06 Oct 94 - Page 76
1 in this where they have taken some trouble to lead the way
2 in nutritional analysis on their labels and, indeed, full
3 ingredient declaration, which they now have to do by law,
4 show a good example. This is where companies are
5 attempting -- I would not say they have been fully
6 successful yet -- to influence the health of their
7 consumers.
8
9 Q. You will have to forgive me, Dr. Lobstein, it is late and
10 you have not been in court and it would not be a sensible
11 waste of my time or yours to debate the labelling issue.
12 Will you excuse me for that?
13
14 THE WITNESS: Thank you.
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just decide whether you have re-examination
17 and what it is, if you do.
18
19 MR. MORRIS: We have a few questions.
20
21 Re-Examined by the Defendants
22
23 MR. MORRIS: Mr. Rampton said about the pocket in Peckham. Is
24 the point about the Peckham survey that there are many
25 areas of the country that could have a similar makeup -- I
26 mean, what is the word, population makeup?
27 A. Yes, I would imagine that there are large areas of the
28 country where social classes 4 and 5, some people's
29 terminology, where low income families form the majority
30 of the population, but I would like to see it confirmed.
31 I would not want to make assumptions.
32
33 MS. STEEL: Do you think that it helps such customers to make
34 informed choices reading literature such as this that we
35 went into earlier with statements such as, "But McDonald's
36 menu contains ingredients from all the food groups, all
37 good to eat as well as being good news if you want to stay
38 healthy"?
39 A. I fear there are dangers of misleading people into
40 thinking, for example, in the earlier example you gave,
41 meat, bread and potatoes were the sole products on offer.
42 In fact, the fat is added to those, the sugar is added to
43 those and so forth. So, I think there is a certain degree
44 in which those statements are not the whole truth of the
45 food they sell.
46
47 Q. That frequency of visit chart that showed, at least by
48 McDonald's own figures, that four per cent of customers
49 were eating there several times a week; would that be a
50 concern?
51 A. Well, it is to me, as I tried to explain at the time,
52 because if that is taking the overall per cent of
53 customers from all areas in Britain as opposed to just
54 those in, shall we say, socially deprived areas, then it
55 could well be that in socially deprived areas the
56 proportion is a good deal greater. That is what led to
57 our study in Peckham.
58
59 Q. So it would be of concern to you that people were eating
60 at McDonald's several times a week?
