§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection whether the health argument associated with polyunsaturated fats and margarine was among the criteria taken into account in altering the rate of the butter subsidy; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MaclennanBoth the recent report of the Joint Working Party of the Royal College of Physicians and the British Cardiac Society, and the earlier report of the Chief Medical Officer's Committee oil Medical Aspects of Food Policy, recommended that the intake of dietary fats should be reduced. This is one of several factors taken into account when the butter subsidy is reviewed. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Services has made clear, the Chief Medical Officer's Committee does not consider that there is conclusive evidence that replacement of saturated by polyunsaturated fat in the diet would necessarily reduce the incidence of coronary heart disease in the United Kingdom.