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.

“Since when does baguette contain sesame?“

Seeded baguettes are a perfectly normal everyday foodstuff. As is tiger bread- which is made with sesame oil.

Poor bloody kid. There’s nothing to be gained now from blaming her parents or Pret, so I won’t.

I thought this no need to label is for things like McDonalds or freshly made sandwiches just wrappen in a paper or so.

OftenHangry McDonalds allergen information is excellent and continually updated. Under every till in McDonalds is an up-to-date allergen information booklet listing all the ingredients in absolutely every product (with more common ones in bold) and if there is an allergen query customers should be directed to a manager.

A lot of allergy sufferers visit McDonalds specifically because they know exactly what is in the product and that they are well renowned for their excellent hygiene standards.

everyone I think five guys are exceptional in their use of peanut oil, its a pretty expensive oil so don't think mcdonalds etc would follow suit. We like Taco Bell as they are very nut allergy friendly (and sesame incidentally!), very popular with teens too.

That's good to know Sink but we wouldn't take the chance. DD is allergic to tree nuts. in a skin prick test age 5, she only reacted to hazelnut and walnut but we were advised to avoid all nuts. She wasn't given an epipen and we haven't had any reactions since but I'm starting to think she should have one.

She should have an epipen, especially if school age. Our ds was diagnosed peanut allergic at 12 months, we was given two epipens. He sees his consultant every two yrs to be tested. He has a medical bag at home and school, each containing two epipens, piriton and inhalers.

Similar to me - my tests didn’t show a peanut allergy, every other type of nut showed a reaction, along with sesame and various other things.

I was told not to eat any nuts including peanuts (I did get an epipen but after getting them for 10 years and not needing to use one because I’m careful they stopped giving them to me!)

McDonalds are good for allergies except sesame - those bloody seeds just get everywhere.

In order the sandwiches have a label telling you what’s in them, e.g tuna and sweet corn with mayonnaise on rye bread. You would expect the label to say: tuna etc on sesame seed bread/peanut bread for the common allergens. It’s not unreasonable to expect that.

Anyone can develop an allergy at any time. Perhaps some of the posters who feel so secure in condomening people with them would do well to remeber that

She did have an epipen.
I think it’s a bit unreasonable to assign blame so harshly. This was evidently a highly serious allergy. Her parents are obviously kicking themselves now.

But I would suspect that if you have a potentially lethal allergy that home cooked food and no pre packed food is a safer route surely ?

She was travelling between two countries though, suggesting a trip/holiday to one or t'other.

She couldn't have taken a packed lunch as they won't let food through airport security (or will they in 'special' cases?). So even if she starved herself on the journey, she'd still need to eat wherever she arrived.

This would mean never staying in a hotel and only ever staying somewhere self catered?

She should have an epipen, especially if school age. Our ds was diagnosed peanut allergic at 12 months, we was given two epipens. He sees his consultant every two yrs to be tested. He has a medical bag at home and school, each containing two epipens, piriton and inhalers.

She did. Did you even read the story? Her father injected her twice.

DD is 15 now. Consultant at the time said that as her only reaction was from eating a piece of walnut, so quite a lot of nut and her reaction being itchy mouth and being sick once was relatively mild.
Nothing since but we are careful and she is luckily a cautious child. She had a packed lunch all through school and still does.

Each dose of epipen buys you roughly 5 mins of time, that's it! She needed an ambulance and hospital, the plane should have landed immediately.

Seeded baguettes are a perfectly normal everyday foodstuff

Seeded on the top yes, not mixed into flour where you can't see them.

They don't bake the actual seeds into bread but it's not uncommon for bread to be flavoured with sesame paste. A lot of those "ultimate" glossy brioche style burger buns have it in and a lot of seeded bread does. Pret's brown baguettes are the latter variety.

This sad event brings out the obviously non allergic preachers. We have no other allergic family members. I grew up eating peanuts at family parties. I get mild hay fever and so did my mum, that' the family history. DD had eczema as a baby, GP said don't introduce nuts until 3. I followed this advice and she ate peanut butter and the nut products until her first reaction age 5. It can happen any time. Her siblings are allergy free.

Absolutely tragic. My heart goes out to the family.

My son has an allergy to milk and egg. He is 9 years old. It appears to be less severe than it was but we always check ingredients when we are out and about. We were thrilled to find a vegan chocolate cake in a national trust cafe but you never know if someone has used a knife to cut it that may have been used with cake baked with egg or milk or if something has dropped on it. It is embarrassing to ask all the time especially if there is a queue behind you. And you don't want to seem to be accusing people of potentially serving unsafe food.

I think there is a greater understanding and awareness of allergies in cafes etc but there is such a long way to go to make food choices fully risk free - especially when, in our experience, people think that because it is gluten free it is allergy free. Not sure if eating outside of the home ever can be risk free tbh. But we take whatever measures we can to ensure the risks are small and try to give ds the same enjoyable 'typical' eating out experiences that other children (including his younger brother) have.

I never knew sesame was used in tiger bread and brioche buns. Just checked some I have in the freezer and it is not listed as an ingredient.

She couldn't have taken a packed lunch as they won't let food through airport security (or will they in 'special' cases?)

Of course you can take food through security! You might have a problem at customs if you aren't travelling between EU countries, but she was flying from Heathrow to Nice.

Of course you can take food through security! You might have a problem at customs if you aren't travelling between EU countries, but she was flying from Heathrow to Nice.

Really?

Lol. Now they fucking tell me...

aint was referring to a PP saying her daughter doesn’t have an epipen, not the girl who tragically died.

Yes, my allergies came out of nowhere at 10.

My first reaction was also mouth / throat itching and vomiting. My next reaction was much much worse. I would go back and ask about an epipen - you can be scrupulously careful and still make a mistake or be the victim of one.

After two decades of avoiding nuts and seeds, I had a tiny bit of a random dip without thinking in a New York restaurant and had a nasty reaction (luckily not requiring an epipen as I no longer have them). That’s been my only reaction in over a decade though.

I am fine with sesame oil, peanut oil etc but the seeds are lethal and they are sneaky buggers that get everywhere.

dd is egg allergic and we've always found pret to be really good with their allergy advice, but we do always ask. I think there were probably lots of different things that went wrong to unfortunately cause this

Pret is a nightmare. I have allergies, a few which result in anaphylaxis. Their staff are amongst the most unhelpful I've come across in food industry. I don't shop there

M&S are awful. EVERYTHING says "May contain nuts". Not helpful and a cop-out.

"Allergen information DOES have to be available, but not printed because to do that every day, especially in a place where a menu might change every day, is unrealistic. I don't think it's unreasonable for people with allergies to have to ask in a place where they make their own food."

Actually the Govt guidelines say that allergy information does have to be printed. Although you'd be surprised the amount of places that still don't have it; or it's out of date or doesn't have all food listed on it. I really hope that the law changes so all food needs to list the main allergens, it would make things so much safer. Sesame is among DS1's many allergies and it wouldn't even occur to me that it would be in a plain (non seeded, non tiger) baguette.