Allergy training must improve, activists demand

The death of a 13-year-old girl who died of a hypersensitive anaphylactic reaction after drinking a Costa Coffee hot chocolate should be a “wake-up call” for all food companies, campaigners say.

Hannah Jacobs suffered from a severe milk allergy and died in February 2023, just hours after drinking the drink her mother had bought her – despite alerting staff to her daughter’s allergies.

A Investigation revealed that there had been a “communication error” between the staff at the cafe in Barking, east London, and Hannah’s mother, Abimbola Duyile.

The parents of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse – who died in 2016 of an allergic reaction to a baguette from Pret a Manger – and Hannah’s legal team called on the government to take action to protect people with food allergies.

“It is not even common sense to legislate for every scenario,” said Nadim Ednan-Laperouse BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“What needs to happen, however, is that the understanding and appreciation of food allergies in society in general – including companies operating in the food and drink industry – needs to increase significantly.

“Only in this way and through a real change in behavior can people become significantly more confident in dealing with food allergies.”

The inquest into Hannah’s death was taking place at the time of her reaction; allergen training for new Costa employees included a series of online modules that could be accessed from home, as well as a quiz that trainees had to pass.

In her conclusion, Deputy Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said: “The actual cause of death is failure to follow established procedures for discussing allergies and lack of communication between the mother and the barista.”

Costa Coffee said it had listened to all of the coroner’s statements and would review all further reports.

But speaking at the East London Coroner’s Court following the inquest into Hannah’s death, her mother accused the food industry of treating allergen safety training as a mere “box-ticking exercise”.

Ms Duyile said: “After hearing all the evidence over the last week, it is clear to me that although allergy training is mandatory in the food industry and for healthcare workers, this training is not taken seriously enough.

“There needs to be increased awareness of the symptoms of anaphylaxis in these industries and in society.”

After the death of their daughter in 2016, Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse founded the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation and advocated for the change in the law After Natasha didn’t know that the baguette she was eating contained sesame seeds due to a loophole in food labeling.

Mr Ednan-Laperouse agreed with Ms Duyile’s analogy that box-ticking training “will not work with the millions of people who have food allergies”.

“I think it’s fair to say that big companies like Costa like to do the right thing – in the food and business sectors, no one gets up in the morning worried about causing harm to their customers.

“However, this situation highlights that the type of training being provided across the sector is not up to scratch,” Ednan-Laperouse told BBC Breakfast.

“In this case, one family has clearly been let down, and probably other families as well, but at the moment we may not hear about it in the public eye.

“I think this has to be a real wake-up call for these industries and sectors to take another look at how they can really improve their understanding of allergies, particularly of their employees, and the way they train them.”

Michelle Victor, who was part of Hannah’s family’s legal team at the inquest, said there was a problem with “appropriate education about how to manage allergies”, adding that training “needs to be introduced and monitored”.

“There needs to be a special approach to the issue of allergens,” she said on the “Today” show.

“We need to bring the government together and focus on this issue. It is important that we tackle this together.

“I think the most important thing for us is that all food companies need to understand how important it is that when they train their employees, they can trust that they understand the training and are aware of the consequences if they do not follow it.”

A spokesman for the Ministry of Health said earlier: “Our deepest condolences go out to the family and friends of Hannah Jacobs and all those affected by this case.”

“Department officials are in ongoing discussions with the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation about better support for allergy sufferers and ministers will carefully consider their views and any recommendations from the coroner.”