Day 039 - 20 Oct 94 - Page 60
1 (Short Adjournment)
2
3 MR. MORRIS: A final question is how do you feel, bearing in
4 mind these compounds are in existence, are used, for
5 example, by McDonald's, how do you feel they should
6 communicate the implications or the usage of these
7 compounds to customers?
8 A. In my experience, companies endeavour to comply with
9 the letter of the law and do not always go out of their way
10 to provide more information than the minimum lawfully
11 required. There are requirements on packaged foods sold
12 for retail and additives needed to be listed, either by
13 name or chemical number.
14
15 Q. Listed how?
16 A. As I say, for additives either ----
17
18 Q. Listed where?
19 A. On the package, either by name or number. I am of the
20 opinion on record of arguing that there is a loophole there
21 because there is a tendency not to use E numbers, but to
22 use chemical names and people have been known to pick a
23 product up and say: "Oh, there is no E number in that", a
24 misleading impression they might have gained. But there
25 are no corresponding requirements for foods sold in
26 catering establishments to be labelled, either when it is
27 served on a plate or in a bowl as it is in many
28 restaurants, or when it is sold in packages as it is, for
29 example, in fast-food outlets such as McDonald's.
30
31 Q. In short, what do you think McDonald's should do or should
32 be doing?
33 A. I think the labelling regulations should be amended to
34 require foods sold in the kinds of packages typical of
35 fast-food outlets which list the ingredients upon those
36 packages. There is no particular reason why they should
37 not do that. I can understand how a small restaurant might
38 have a menu that varies from day-to-day or week-to-week and
39 they do not have standardised lists. But, if there is a
40 catering company in this world whose products are
41 standardised it must be McDonald's, though many of their
42 competitors are, perhaps, seeking to be standardised to a
43 similar extent. So, I see no particular difficulty at all
44 for the company in providing comprehensive ingredient
45 listing on the packages of the food in which they dispense
46 their products.
47
48 MR. MORRIS: No further questions.
49
50 Cross-examined by MR. RAMPTON
51
52 MR. RAMPTON: Dr. Millstone, for all your great expertise, you
53 do not run a worldwide food retailing business, do you?
54 A. I most certainly do not, though I have endeavoured to
55 study such organisations.
56
57 Q. Can I remind you of something you said yesterday, please?
58 I will read from the transcript. You need not worry I will
59 misrepresent what you say.
60 A. Could I ask you to speak a little louder?
