Day 040 - 21 Oct 94 - Page 32

     
     1        which estimate the incidence of intolerance to additives.
     2        I do not have a collection of studies in respect of
     3        nutritional foods, such as milk, eggs and fish -- I think I
     4        would have added chocolate to that list as well.
     5
     6   Q.   Would you?  Can you turn over the page now, please?
     7        A.  Forward or back?
     8
     9   Q.   Sorry, forwards going on through the document, so far as
    10        I am able, the middle column?
    11        A.  Yes.
    12
    13   Q.    Under:  "What about food additives?  Food colours, such as
    14        Tartrazine, Sunset Yellow and Annatto, occasionally cause
    15        reactions but the food industry has carried out experiments
    16        to show shoppers prefer colourful products".  Why do you
    17        laugh?
    18        A.  The only experiments of that nature I am aware of were
    19        some conducted in, I think it was, the early 70s by
    20        Marks & Spencer, and that applied to raspberry jam and
         canned peas.  What happened was that they changed the
    22        formulation of those two products, and they changed the
    23        formulation simply by removing the synthetic colours and
    24        not otherwise indicating this change on the label.  Up
    25        until that time the presence of the synthetic colours had
    26        not been labelled on the products and, therefore, there was
    27        an abrupt change in the appearance of the raspberry jam and
    28        their canned peas.  The sales of those two products did
    29        decline rapidly.
    30
    31        Marks & Spencers interpreted those results as indicating
    32        that "consumers want artificial colours".  But in
    33        circumstances when they did not understand that artificial
    34        colours had initially been present and they were not told
    35        that the colours had been removed or why they were removed,
    36        I do not think of that as a proper test.
    37
    38        More recently, from about 1985 to 1990, most food retailers
    39        have found that when they have removed artificial colours
    40        from many of their products that shoppers have preferred
         those products free of artificial colours.  So, I think
    42        this is very partial and incomplete reporting.
    43
    44   Q.   I am coming to the motives which you are going to attribute
    45        in a moment to this, what you call, "partial and incomplete
    46        report", Dr. Millstone.  Can I ask you this:  If you
    47        squeeze strawberries to make strawberry juice, what colour
    48        is the juice?
    49        A.  It is not an experiment I have conducted.  If you have
    50        information, I would be grateful if you would share it with 
    51        me. 
    52 
    53   Q.   May I suggest it is colourless, or very nearly?
    54        A.  It may be.  I have no reason to contest that.
    55
    56   Q.   May I suggest as a matter of common sense that the average
    57        consumer would prefer to know that he is having a
    58        strawberry milk shake, if that is what he wants, as opposed
    59        to a banana milk shake and, therefore, there is some
    60        advantage to the consumer in knowing which is which?