to think that Pret are responsible for this young woman's death

[brizzledrizzle]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-45617845

A 15 year old with a sesame allergy died after eating a sandwich from Pret a manger; the company confirmed that 'its products were not individually labelled with allergen or ingredient information.' (missing apostrophe not mine)

I think it's appalling that they don't label products and pretty stupid to bake baguettes with sesame seeds inside if you aren't going to make it very obvious on the packaging that they contain sesame seeds. The government website says that they must be on the packaging because of allergies.

What I meant was you could make a sandwich at home from scratch. So you would know exactly what was in it.

I think in an airport, where there's restricted choice and you are usually under time pressure, the safest thing is to bring your own home made sandwich. It's different if you're going out for a meal in town where you can wander about all evening until you find a place that caters for your dietary requirements. In an airport, if a person with allergies is hungry and needs to catch a flight, they can't just grab any thing like other people can do. So they need to plan ahead and bring something with them.

Food should be accurately labelled, but humans do make mistakes and if you have a severe allergy it is yours or your parent's responsibility to take reasonable care for your own safety. In a restricted setting such as an airport or flight that to me means bringing your own food.

dimsum, this wasn't a case of individual humans making a mistake. This was a case of a large company with a significant history of serious issues arising out of sesame hidden in its products taking a deliberate decision to take advantage of a loophole meant for small one-shop sandwich suppliers.

I have an allergy to sesame and always check the labels of anything I buy. If sesame isn't listed, I'm happy to assume that means it isn't in there and to buy the product. If I go into a well-known chain such as Pret, I think I should be entitled to assume that, if they don't have a sign or label saying that a product contains sesame, then it doesn't contain it. That must be the case all the more strongly in relation to a 17 year old. I really hate the implication that this girl was in some way to blame for the circumstances of her own very distressing death.

It’s an absolute tragedy. It seems that the law is at fault regarding labelling food prepared on the premises but this is no answer.
Sesame allergy is very well known and wide spread.
I was totally gutted by this story.
Pret need to take responsibility for this, just because they were technically within the law, doesn’t make them blameless.
A child died because of negligence

It is an awful, and terrifying, case. There are so many 'what ifs' that could been seen and torment her family that she would still be alive had the other alternative of the if happened.

We can argue this till the cows come home. What is highly unclear from the news reports is the labelling.

There's mixed communication about there not being on labels on the sandwiches (even afterwards). That the father read the label and was lead to believe it would be a safe food. Then there's the information that the allergen was listed in the folder available (which needs to be asked for).

What you can conclude is that if an ingredient label is on a food it must be a full list of ingredients.

But what of a descriptive label? Is it plausible all allergens are described? I know that if I am buying for my family member with multiple severe allergies I look for a full ingredient list.

An item listed as a whole item when it's made from several components (for example 'granary bread') is not enough on an ingredient list, but would be normal on a descriptive label.

The girl's death is so tragic, and made all the more heart breaking as there seems so many ways it may have been avoided. A tormenting feeling for her parents.

It wasn't negligence by Pret though, was it.
There hasn't been a whole lot of people dying or almost dying because they've eaten a sandwich from Pret with sesame in it, and it's a reasonably common allergy.

If anyone was negligent it was the girl/her father for buying food when they weren't 100% sure what was in it. With an allergy as severe as hers, that was a mistake - a tragic mistake.

What we don't know if why she and her father thought it was a safe food. If they were usually vigilant or observed like hawks ingredients, why this time did think they had.

Was it a
misunderstanding of a description label as full ingredients (by normal vigilant people)?
A partial allergen list?
An incomplete ingredients list?

Why would anyone know if (or evrn think) a given list of ingredients or allergens was incomplete or partial?

There hasn't been a whole lot of people dying or almost dying because they've eaten a sandwich from Pret with sesame in it, and it's a reasonably common allergy.

Not deaths, no, but 9 other allergic reactions from hidden sesame within a one year period, 4 of which needed hospital treatment. The fact that this happened despite these complaints (which had been logged by the company), is appalling.

news.sky.com/story/pret-had-nine-sesame-allergy-incidents-in-year-before-girls-death-inquest-hears-1150840

I’m still not clear if the ingredients were labelled on the sandwich or not as there have been Confusing reports.

Was in a nationwide coffee shop and nationwide supermarket yesterday. Both had fresh sandwiches/hot food etc and neither listed the ingredients or allergens, just a label saying what the food was. All the label on the shelf said was, "we cannot guarantee any of our products are free of nuts" and "please ask staff about allergen information".
Pret is no different that any of the other shops selling fresh food and this could easily have happened anywhere.

The Coroner has been quite clear that Pret was at fault here. Don't people follow the news?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45679320

That's the Coroner's opinion.
Coroners aren't always right, just as judges aren't always right.

Herat, I agree. I think as a parent, the dad should have brought food from home to the airport simply due to the restricted choices and time constraints of being in an airport. I know if I was the parent in this case that is 100% what I would have done. It's far too risky with such severe allergies to rely on there being something suitable available at the airport. The girl had multiple allergies, nor just sesame.

*Dimsum
*
You can't always take food through security and what if long delays etc.

Heratnumber, of course coroners aren't infallible. However, don't you think an experienced coroner who has read all the reports, and seen and heard all the witnesses and been able to question them, stands a better chance of being right than someone who's read a few newspaper reports?

I can personally attest that it wasn't 9 other incidents, it was 10, as I had an allergic reaction around that time after eating something from Pret with sesame in. It wasn't life threatening, but it was very unpleasant. I didn't bother to report it, and I probably wasn't the only one.

Pret was at fault for inadequate labelling, but I don’t think they can be held responsible for her death. If she hadn’t got on a flight she could have got treatment straight away. It was unfortunate that it was a rather fuckwitted BA crew to boot.

Very very sad but...

Pret followed the law. Not a loophole, not for small businesses... it’s the law.

It’s pretty rubbish for those with an allergy, but don’t buy from anywhere without a list of ingredients. Not worth the risk.

There are lots of ifs and buts with allergies.

People with allergies sometimes have only had fairly mild reactions before then suddenly have a severe reaction.

People might have planned to bring a meal, but had it confiscated at security (we've had this happen to us), or their flights might be very delayed meaning that they'd ended up eating all the food they'd brought with them (again, happened to us).

People, for whatever reason, sometimes end up having to buy food at the airport, then get on a plane. Or they end up having to eat food they buy on a plane.

Food resellers, should do their best to label their food correctly. They might always be able to get it quite right for various reasons, but they should at least try.

In this situation, Pret clearly could have chosen to do a much better job of labelling its food, and chose not to do so.

A combination of factors meant that a young girl died. Some of those factors didn't have to happen.

Pret might not be legally liable, but some of this is down to them choosing not to label food in a way that they really should have bothered to do so if they took food allergies seriously.

I hope food retailers are watching this and learning from it that they do have a moral responsibility.

Correction to my post...
Food resellers should do their best to label their food correctly. They might NOT always be able to get it quite right for various reasons, but they should at least try.

Allergy sufferers do all they can to self manage their life threatening medical condition. Anaphylactic Shock is not nice and my heart goes out to her family. She had had allergies since she was aged two so will have grown up managing her condition and checking food labels, asking cafe, restaurant staff etc. The Coroner reported various inadequacies including the length of her Epipen needles, food labelling laws, etc. Please please support my campaign on 38 Degrees and noted on this site and help me make food labelling improved. In her fathers words let this death be a watershed and accurate information for all our children made safe. Thank you.

I don't think Pret are "taking advantage of a loophole". It isn't relevant how big the chain is, what is relevant is how the food is made, which is in the back kitchen, and the same as for any independent café.

They might NOT always be able to get it quite right for various reasons

Which is what happened in this case and someone died. What will happen is, to protect their legal position, all shops will say they can't guarantee that any of their products are free of allergens.

The sad death of this beautiful girl is heartbreaking. I read in the paper today how her poor mother was alone
at an airport trying to get to her when she had to say goodbye to her on the phone as she was so close to death

I gather there’s an international shortage of epi pens now. It’s terrifying

I gather there’s an international shortage of epi pens now. It’s terrifying

I know this is a problem in the UK but not so much here in the US as we've moved away from Epipens because of the cost. We now use the Auvi-Q and there's also the Adrenaclick. I believe soon there will be generics from Teva and Adamis. But I know this isn't much comfort to those in the UK who are affected and it must be a huge worry. I wonder if there's any way the NHS could prescribe alternatives if the manufacturing issues continue?