Globalisation:European Food Information Council: People and connections

Controversies involving EUFIC people

Dr. Josephine Wills in 2000 promoted a new chocolate making process to the press which her employers, the Mars company, claimed could help reduce heart disease, but these claims ignored the fact that Mars products are also high in fat and sugar - both contributory factors in heart disease.

John Lupien in 2000 John Lupien participated in a debate which proposed 'Ultra-processed foods are adverse to human health'. John Lupien opposed in the debate. The debate was a reaction to the practice of transnational food and drink manufacturers exerting pressure on South American countries to reduce the amount of natural foodstuffs they consumed and increase the amounts of processed foodstuffs they consumed. An example of which was the Nestlé attempt to reach Amazonian people and promote their processed products to them, a group who's diet is almost entirely natural and traditional. John Lupien's response was that we should 'get real, and live in the modern world, processed food is the way it is'. The debate resulted in a vote of 30 for the proposal and 0 opposed.

Ronald Walker Ronald Walker spent seven years as the ILSI’s Chairman of their Scientific Committee on Toxicology/Food Safety in Europe. ILSI is funded by Monsanto, Ajinomoto, Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, etc. He was a consultant for DSM Nutritional Products, a company that sold “Twinsweet” from Holland Sweetener Company which is a mixture of aspartame and acesulfame-k. The DSM web site contained aspartame advocacy articles written by Holland Sweetener Company. He was a consultant for the Numico Beheer BV / Danone Group, a company that had a joint venture with Ajinomoto. He was also a paid consultant for Cantox Health Sciences International. He has written a glowing review of an Ajinomoto product, monosodium glutamate (MSG) for a symposium funded by an Ajinomoto managed trade group, International Glutamate Technical Committee (IGTC).He has participated in another aspartame review where he claimed that aspartame was safe.