Milk allergy death- should the book be thrown at the staff involved?

[mids2019]

....or if you are minimum wage staff member working in a stressed environment without English as a first language there should be leniency. Doctors are paid for life and death decisions but are Costa staff?

I don't think it's fair to say people with a milk allergy shouldn't be eating out somewhere that serves so much milk. I'm coeliac and Italian places are usually the best. Chains in particular. I've been fed gluten 3 times by restaurants in the last 3 years, despite saying 'gluten free' when ordering and when receiving my meal and explaining it's an allergy (it's not but people don't understand autoimmune). That was at an independent tapas place, an independent high end restaurant and a chain pub at a carvery. I've never been glutened at pizza express, Frankie and bennys, Prezzo etc. If I was anaphylactic I'd stick to these places despite the fact that gluten is in almost all their 'normal' meals.

A lot needs to be done still when it comes to allergies and treatment and awareness how to handle them. Allergies and severe allergies are on the rise seemingly, restaurants need to step up.

But then perhaps it would be better to a a few well trained staff who deal with this-who it is handed over to as soon as there is known to be an allergy.

Labels are sometimes wrong, too. There seems to be a recall by the supermarkets every week or two for undeclared allergens in foods.

But 3 times in 3 years shows a shockingly high chance of being served an allergen. With a life threatening allergy it seems like a stupid risk to take.

I have more questions than anything- could the mum not have checked the drink- either watch them make it or take a sip before giving her child? My OH has a daily intolerance ( so not life threatening) and he watches them make his drink.
Did they not carry an epi pen?
Yes the server made a mistake, but the parents choice to choose the drink led to the mistake. There is plenty of juices, smoothies etc that are sold.

So you think a child diagnosed with a milk allergy as a baby should never eat in a restaurant or a cafe, or get a takeaway, or an ice lolly with friends , they should bring a packed lunch to every birthday party, wedding, graduation? Including their own wedding, 21st, graduation? If their travel goes tits up they should just go hungry rather than grab a snack? Only ever go on self catering holidays? Never eat in a friend's house (riskier than a cafe IMO)?

Is that the life you would like for your child?

I have an allergy to kiwi. I never have smoothies, or any mixed fruit out of my home or family members. The last time I ate it, it made my mouth swell. Before that it used to make my tongue itch. I also avoid pineapple to be on the safe side.
I don’t understand why her Mum would trust that there’s wouldn’t be any remnants of milk in the equipment/utensils they use in a coffee shop.

If it was contamination, then it's a risk taken by the customer. If you say you have a severe dairy allergy and ask for soya milk but they give you dairy milk, then surely that's usually the fault of the barista.
In a lot of places, when someone has an allergy, the manager handles it as they have more training, experience and speak good English. Then mix ups are avoided. In this case it seems it's Costa fault for employing someone who can't deal with a customer with an allergy.

Food you buy in a supermarket for home consumption is a lot more tightly regulated and the ingredients listed on the packaging. Sorry, but if you have a life threatening allergy it’s up to you to be vigilant. If it was a dairy allergy then you and your family have the responsibility to make sure you know what foods contain dairy and avoid them. Hot chocolate powders contain dairy - why didn’t they know this ?

Better that than the death of that child.

Duyile says she asked for two soya hot chocolates and asked staff to thoroughly clean the equipment

“Can you wash the jug because my daughter has a dairy allergy?”

Akter told the court she had repeated Duyile’s request that the jug be washed and also pointed out that hot chocolate is made from milk. She said Duyile replied: “That’s fine.”

This is very confusing. The mother asked for soya hot chocolates, and asked for the jug/equipment to be cleaned, and the server pointed out that hot chocolate is made from milk.
Did she make the drinks from cows milk even though the mother ordered soya hot chocolates?

There's a lot of complacency and poor communication here.

Costas chocolate powder doesn't contain milk. The risk from their hot chocolate is from cross contamination

Not the point of the thread whatsoever and every point I want to make has been succinctly put forward already by other allergy parents - but - my allergic DC had their only significant reaction to date in Bill’s… we rarely eat out and stick to chains which have allergen books and stricter procedures in place but mistakes can happen everywhere and you can never assume somewhere will be ok. It seems this child had had the beverage previously without incident, ordering it again is quite understandable.

This is a terrible and tragic incident which is every allergy parent’s nightmare, my heart goes out to them. Many posters on this thread who are clearly not allergy sufferers or parents of them have no idea of the constant vigilance, extra work etc required. It’s all very well saying never ever eat out but that is impossible in certain scenarios. We travel only self-catering and recently only in the UK, but when flying previously we take spare meals. Whenever we go out for the day we must take food with, carry it (and all the meds!), find somewhere to eat it… Even with careful planning some travel delays etc can put you in very difficult positions. Not to mention the more prosaic - eg well meaning other school parents who insist they have catered safely and gone out of their way to source cake etc at parties that is safe and give it directly to my child (they haven’t, it isn’t - so awkward), and woefully incompetent schools. Even family members mess this up - last week my SIL insisted a cake was safe for my dc, she had been to get it specially, I asked to see the packaging, had to be uncomfortably pushy as she was sure it was fine - lo and behold it said on the label ‘not suitable for xxx allergy sufferers’. The increased availability of for instance vegan food is a blessing and a curse - a lot of vegan food is not actually suitable for severe allergy sufferers of eg dairy, egg - but, very understandably the average person doesn’t realise this!! Unless you live with this every day it is very very challenging to grasp the comprehensiveness with which everything must be checked. Allergy is still not well understood, as demonstrated by the numerous and depressing sweeping assumptions in this thread, and sadly this lack of understanding increases risk and stress for sufferers.

That would be enough for me to be honest then - I was going on the commercial hot chocolate powder ingredients, which contain milk powder. Having seen the speed with which staff have to work I wouldn’t trust my life to that.

I do. But thanks for the lecture.

The ‘lecture’ wasn’t aimed at you?, I just wanted to mention that my child had a reaction at Bills as it has been twice cited as a safe place. I then went on to respond to the thread more generally. I’m sorry you took it that way to post a sarcastic response to a serious issue that effects us both personally.

Costa hot chocolate powder doesn’t contain dairy.

As someone who has worked in a food production factory I’d be very naive to believe those labels, you also don’t know who has consumed what on their break and what remnants they have on their skin. You don’t know who has touched that packaging either.

But those aren't the only choices. Have you read any of the posts from parents of children with allergies? We risk assess this stuff all the time. No parent wants to place their child in a bubble, and as I explained above it isn't actually safe - like any other parent, our job is to raise our DC to be independent and take over the risk assessment themselves.

This mother asked for a non-dairy milk and for the jug to be cleaned, and she was served a drink that killed her child. Placing blame on her for that is awful.

I assume you never go anywhere in a car or near a car with your child then? As each time you do you are risking their death

Same with taking a child to the beach where they could drown. Or skiing. Or horse riding...

@Rosscameasdoody

So never drive a car in case you crash?
Never go outside if you have an allergy to wasp stings?
Never horse ride in case you fall?

The thing is, I do understand your point. I'd have probably said the same thing as you 10 years ago. But since living "the allergy life" with my son, I now understand that it's not as easy as "just don't eat out".

If you notice, it is mostly non dairy allergy sufferers saying they'd never take the risk. It is the people with allergies and children with dairy allergies explaining why they DO take calculated risks and why they deserve to be kept safe by companies like Costa, as much as is reasonably possible.

Agree.

I would love nothing more than to keep my child in a protective bubble but the age they are most at risk is as teens and young adults. Before they get to that age I think it is most important that I have modelled how to choose places to eat and how to communicate allergies and check menus.

Otherwise when my child reaches that age they will either be very socially excluded (if they avoid any eating /drinking activities) or will be unconfident in how to navigate allergies and be at huge risk.

That sounds great actually and I like that greggs are doing that....but they are a massive company with the money/ability to do so we wouldnt have the money to do this...but as always there is room for human error...at the end of the day we are all human and accidents happen...no one would ever mean to do this kind of thing it's just actually terribly unfortunate!

Allergy is still not well understood, as demonstrated by the numerous and depressing sweeping assumptions in this thread, and sadly this lack of understanding increases risk and stress for sufferers.

Very well said. I’m sorry you have to cope with this, I can imagine it is very stressful.

Sorry.

Or just feeding them at all really - you can never fully eliminate the risk of choking.