Day 055 - 25 Nov 94 - Page 29
1
2 Do you have any comments on page 1, "excessive consumption
3 of any food"? It says in the note: "Although apparently
4 vague and open-ended"; it says about a "common sense
5 interpretation"?
6 A. Yes. We have, in our response to these proposals,
7 suggested that the National Food Guide should be used as a
8 criteria for determining what is excessive. So, for
9 example, the excessive consumption of a chocolate bar would
10 be much lower than, for example, the excessive consumption
11 of apples.
12
13 MR. MORRIS: Right. Would that affect something like the
14 hamburger character who lives to eat -----
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: When you say the National Food Guide, what
17 are you talking about there?
18 A. I understand you referred to this earlier.
19
20 MR. MORRIS: Yes. It came up in the nutrition section that we
21 had. I do not know if you remember, it was a leaflet. It
22 may have been the "Eat Well", but it was a leaflet rather
23 than a pamphlet. It had a pie chart with the different
24 food selections, the five food groups, including -- I think
25 Mr. Lobstein said there was a dispute over whether the
26 confectionery should be allowed as a food group, sweets and
27 cakes.
28
29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Is that what you are referring to?
30 A. Yes. It is what I referred to earlier this morning
31 when I was going through the NFA's submission in its
32 definition of fatty and sugary food, as based on the
33 National Food Guide categorisation of food into five
34 categories, which are fruits and vegetables, the starchy
35 foods, both of which should be the largest categories of
36 food in a balanced diet.
37
38 MR. MORRIS: It is part of the Health of the Nation
39 official ---
40 A. Yes, initiative.
41
42 Q. -- initiative?
43 A. Yes.
44
45 Q. Would that relate to cartoon characters, do you think?
46 A. Yes. I think if a character is portrayed as
47 encouraging or condoning excessive consumption of any food,
48 then, yes, that would fall within this.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If the most recent COMA report were the guide
51 to be followed, it would be wrong to encourage the
52 consumption of one whole chocolate bar in a week, would it
53 not, because they said we ought to keep it down to
54 two-thirds?
55 A. Well, indeed, if the ITC used that as their
56 recommendations, that may be the case.
57
58 MR. MORRIS: Page 2, I do not think we need to go into it --
59 this has been gone through -- unless there is anything
60 particularly you want to say.
