Woman dies from eating traces of dairy products in wrap

[FreeLitres]

I'm seeing this story on the news at the moment.

The 42 year old woman had a severe allergy to dairy products. She ate a "vegan" wrap from Pret a manger which was contaminated with traces of milk protein in the mayo.

Obviously, this is an unfortunate story and I feel for her family.

How do you think the food industry might respond to this story? There are so many potential allergens out there. Will they play it safe and start stripping out all these ingredients from a wider range of foods?

[Road2Ruin]

'Traces', now that is a severe allergic reaction. Considering these things though are less then one in 10 million, I would say nothing would happen. However, food companies must make sure they know what they are selling.
I am surprised that with such a violent reaction this hasn't appeared sooner for her!

[irc]

The companies involved all explaining why it wasn't their fault.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/22/ce...

[vikingaero]

Clive Schlee was the CEO of Pret at the time of the deaths of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse in 2016 and Celia Marsh in 2018 and a further NINE warnings of allergic reactions

He was asked questions by an investigative journalist and he replied to one of them asking whether Pret should have done more to address allergies. His response was that he was on at an airport waiting to go on holiday, he/Pret could not be that bothered and yeah maybe they should have done more. He took 2 years to write a letter of apology to Natashas parents.

Clive got an estimated £30m bonus when Pret was floated in 2018. He lives in luxury and does not give a toss about anyone other than his 30m friends.

Nice guy.

[grumbledoak]

Five years ago!
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/familyhealth/pret...

Did this five year inquest ask the question "What on earth was someone with allergies this severe doing buying pre-packaged food?"

[steveo3002]

if i had a severe allergy i wouldn't be picking up random snacks

[ZedLeg]

It should be safe to assume that food marked as vegan wouldn't have any animal products in it. I've found that you have to be more careful since the whole "plant based" trend started.

[oddman]

irc said:

The companies involved all explaining why it wasn't their fault.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/22/ce...

Tragic and unusual (in the sense of the molecular level of 'dose' of allergen) case. What we really need is research and treatment to manage these allergies at a different point in the biological chain reaction. Epipens are fire fighting.

From the Guardian it looks like a Planet Coconut employee had flagged and recorded the risk of cross contamination of their product.

We'll see whether passing the buck to the Australian supplier will protect them from further action.

Not the place for an 'Elf and Safety' whine but no doubt the immediate consequence is the risk will be passed to the customer with mealy mouthed disclaimers.

[Richard-390a0]

steveo3002 said:

if i had a severe allergy i wouldn't be picking up random snacks

I was thinking that back when the teenage girl died from one of their products. Yes I know you shouldn't have to live your life like that, but is it worth the risk to me no.

[Mr Pointy]

steveo3002 said:

if i had a severe allergy i wouldn't be picking up random snacks

Exactly so. My sister is severley allegic & she doesn't eat anything processed & would never buy a sandwich from a shop. It's very unfortunate that the woman died but if she knew she was that allergic she needed to take responsibility, not rely on the label someone else slapped on a sandwich.

[oddman]

Richard-390a0 said:

steveo3002 said:

if i had a severe allergy i wouldn't be picking up random snacks

I was thinking that back when the teenage girl died from one of their products. Yes I know you shouldn't have to live your life like that, but is it worth the risk to me no.

Celia Marsh died in 2017. The inquest (and therefore the detailed press coverage) for Natasha Ednan-Laperouse was in 2018.

[Ntv]

Very odd she chose to run that catastrophic risk.

Millions of people avoid all sorts of food routinely for medical/health reasons. Successfully.

[greygoose]

Ntv said:

Very odd she chose to run that catastrophic risk.

Millions of people avoid all sorts of food routinely for medical/health reasons. Successfully.

I think the point is that by buying the vegan option she would expect it to be free from the dairy products she was allergic to.

[otolith]

If you have a severe enough allergy that you have to avoid foods with any risk of cross contamination, you might well decide that you aren't going to risk anything pre-prepared, horribly limiting as that is. You should, however, be able to trust the labelling and be able to make a valid risk assessment.

[anonymous-user]

Mr Pointy said:

steveo3002 said:

if i had a severe allergy i wouldn't be picking up random snacks

Exactly so. My sister is severley allegic & she doesn't eat anything processed & would never buy a sandwich from a shop. It's very unfortunate that the woman died but if she knew she was that allergic she needed to take responsibility, not rely on the label someone else slapped on a sandwich.

So PH! Always pushing the boundaries of victim blaming.

Food manufacturers should of course just put everything in plain packaging. No-one needs labelling. Let the customer take responsibility for whatever st the manufacturer puts in the box.

How far do you go with this responsibility? Ignore the label someone has "slapped" on the drugs you picked up at the pharmacy? Make your own EpiPen at home?

[grumbledoak]

otolith said:

If you have a severe enough allergy that you have to avoid foods with any risk of cross contamination, you might well decide that you aren't going to risk anything pre-prepared, horribly limiting as that is. You should, however, be able to trust the labelling and be able to make a valid risk assessment.

That is going to result in everything coming with a massive warning label listing everything else in the Universe.

[Murph7355]

Roman Rhodes said:

Mr Pointy said:

steveo3002 said:

if i had a severe allergy i wouldn't be picking up random snacks

Exactly so. My sister is severley allegic & she doesn't eat anything processed & would never buy a sandwich from a shop. It's very unfortunate that the woman died but if she knew she was that allergic she needed to take responsibility, not rely on the label someone else slapped on a sandwich.

So PH! Always pushing the boundaries of victim blaming.

Food manufacturers should of course just put everything in plain packaging. No-one needs labelling. Let the customer take responsibility for whatever st the manufacturer puts in the box.

How far do you go with this responsibility? Ignore the label someone has "slapped" on the drugs you picked up at the pharmacy? Make your own EpiPen at home?

I was quite surprised it took 50mins for this sort of response (not surprised it was you though of late ).

You make a broadly decent point, BUT that is not what people are saying at all. Everyone who has made the sort of comment you replied to has noted about the allergy being that severe. And they are right.

I do not see that it is realistic for any mass producer of food to 100% guarantee that everything they make will always be free of even the tiniest trace of a product that might cause allergies such that people with severe reactions won't be impacted. Think of the logistics involved in that.

The drugs we buy at a pharmacy do have labels on them (leaflets in the pack). How many of us spend an hour reading it start to finish each time we buy a pack? If someone has an issue that was flagged up on the label, is that the producers fault? "May contain trace allergens" may be considered "mealy mouthed" by some, but what they are doing is acknowledging their processes cannot guarantee anything. If you have a severe allergy, shop elsewhere if you see that - the warning is on the pack (in theory - if the product did not flag this sort of thing, then that's different).

There's a balance to be struck. The more "edge case" your own circumstances, the more you need to take extra care.

[otolith]

grumbledoak said:

otolith said:

If you have a severe enough allergy that you have to avoid foods with any risk of cross contamination, you might well decide that you aren't going to risk anything pre-prepared, horribly limiting as that is. You should, however, be able to trust the labelling and be able to make a valid risk assessment.

That is going to result in everything coming with a massive warning label listing everything else in the Universe.

Not really. It just requires the supply chain to be diligent.

[anonymous-user]

Murph7355 said:

I was quite surprised it took 50mins for this sort of response (not surprised it was you though of late ).

You make a broadly decent point, BUT that is not what people are saying at all. Everyone who has made the sort of comment you replied to has noted about the allergy being that severe. And they are right.

I do not see that it is realistic for any mass producer of food to 100% guarantee that everything they make will always be free of even the tiniest trace of a product that might cause allergies such that people with severe reactions won't be impacted. Think of the logistics involved in that.

The drugs we buy at a pharmacy do have labels on them (leaflets in the pack). How many of us spend an hour reading it start to finish each time we buy a pack? If someone has an issue that was flagged up on the label, is that the producers fault? "May contain trace allergens" may be considered "mealy mouthed" by some, but what they are doing is acknowledging their processes cannot guarantee anything. If you have a severe allergy, shop elsewhere if you see that - the warning is on the pack (in theory - if the product did not flag this sort of thing, then that's different).

There's a balance to be struck. The more "edge case" your own circumstances, the more you need to take extra care.

Presumably what you see as "realistic" is based on working in food manufacturing?

As an aside, did you ever have ambitions to be a teacher? The youth dodged a bullet there.

[croyde]

As others have said, if you have the allergy problem then it's up to yourself to decide whether to take the risk.

Especially if the reaction is death.

If myself or any of my kids had such a severe allergy, I certainly wouldn't put my trust in an anonymous food prepper on basic wage.

I worked in a food place when I was 17 and I accidentally knocked over a tall metal trolley of cold meats in the lift.

Knowing that I'd be in deep do do if the manager found out, I stopped the lift between floors and picked up all the slices off the filthy floor, blew on them, shook them, and then placed them carefully back on their trays.

So lard knows what else happens to your prepackaged food behind the scenes.

I've had food poisoning enough times from prepped lunches bought, restaurants and takeaways but as the reaction tends to be a night on the bog, it's a risk I'll take.