A coroner has called for more “robust” allergen labelling on food products following the death of a woman after she ate a Pret a Manger sandwich.
Maria Voisin, the senior coroner for Avon, said the wording used to denote allergens often implies their absence and “can be potentially misleading”.
“Examples include ‘free-from’ and ‘vegan’. Foods labelled in this way must be free from that allergen, and there should be a robust system to confirm the absence of the relevant allergen in all ingredients and during production when making such a claim,” she said.
In the interim, she added, it may be necessary to clarify that for people with severe allergies, foods labelled ‘free-from’ may not be safe to consume.”
Voisin’s report comes following an inquiry into the death of Celia Marsh, who died from a reaction to dairy after eating a vegan flatbread from Pret a Manger. The item was labelled as ‘vegan’ but was later found to contain contaminated coconut yoghurt.
The report has been sent to several organisations, including the Food Standards Agency, the UK Health Security Agency, the Department of Health and Social Care, the British Retail Consortium and the Food and Drink Federation.
The report also calls for a robust system of recording serious cases of anaphylactic shock “to provide an early warning of the risk posed to allergic individuals by products with undeclared allergen content”.
“Such a system could involve mandatory reporting of anaphylaxis presenting to hospitals, analogous to the current system used for notifiable diseases, including some food-borne illnesses, whereby registered medical practitioners have a statutory duty to notify the ‘proper officer’ at their local council or local health protection team of suspected cases of certain infectious diseases,” she said.
Marsh’s family welcomed the report, calling it “the next step in our fight to make the world a safe place for allergy sufferers like our beloved mum and wife”.
Tanya Ednan-Laperouse, whose 15-year-old daughter Natasha died in 2016 after eating a Pret baguette containing sesame seeds, said: “The coroner’s clear and concise recommendations should herald a transformation of the way anaphylaxis cases are dealt with in this country and mean that Celia’s death was not in vain.
“We are particularly pleased to see that the coroner has called for anaphylaxis to be considered a notifiable disease with a national register of fatal and near-fatal cases of severe food allergic reactions.
“She has also called for a thorough overhaul of potentially misleading and dangerous precautionary allergen labelling and the implementation of robust allergen testing by food producers. These well-overdue measures will save lives.”
Natasha’s death sparked an overhaul of food labelling laws, which now require retailers to display full ingredient and allergen labelling on every food item made on the premises, such as sandwiches and salads.
No comments yet