Government says it is ‘too busy’ to appoint allergy tsar – charity co-founder

The mother of a 15-year-old girl who died following a severe allergic reaction to a Pret a Manger sandwich containing sesame said the Government told her it was “too busy” to appoint an allergy tsar.

Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died on July 17 2016 after eating an artichoke, olive and tapenade baguette from the high street chain before boarding a flight at Heathrow with her father and best friend.

Following her death, the law was changed to require all food outlets to display full ingredient and allergen labelling on every food item made on the premises and pre-packed for direct sale – including sandwiches, cakes and salads.

An inquest into the death of 13-year-old Hannah Jacobs, who died after drinking a hot chocolate from a Costa Coffee shop in Barking, east London, concluded on Friday that she died after a “failure to follow the processes in place to discuss allergies.”

The teenager had a severe dairy allergy and died within hours of taking the drink containing dairy milk on February 8 2023, East London Coroner’s Court was told.

Assistant coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said there had been “failure of communication” between the coffee shop staff and Hannah’s mother.

Tanya Ednan-Laperouse, Natasha’s mother and co-founder of the The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation food allergy charity, attended the final day of the inquest where said she was “a little disappointed” at the verdict and had hoped for “a little bit more concrete support” in how the mistakes leading up to Hannah’s death could have been prevented.

She said: “What really comes to mind is that so many things can go wrong and the awful thing about a food allergy death is that it can always have been prevented.”

Ms Ednan-Laperouse said the charity had written to the Government asking it to appoint an “allergy tsar” to review “problems” related to diagnosis, treatment and education for schools and businesses surrounding allergens, and that the Government had responded saying it was “just too busy at the moment”.

She continued: “We’ve been asking the Government for this for a time, and the new Government has replied to a recent letter saying to us ‘yes – we do understand the seriousness of this, but we’re just too busy at the moment’ which was really disappointing.

“So we’ve written to them again in light of Hannah’s inquest, and we’re really urging them, it’s so time critical, and we really just hope to have a meeting with them about appointing and allergy tsar soon.”

“I can understand they probably very are busy at the moment,” she added, “I do appreciate that, and I don’t think there was any malicious intent in saying that.

“But if you say you’re too busy, it doesn’t give us any understanding or awareness of when you might not be too busy, because I think the work of government will always be busy.

“It’s something that we need to just keep pushing forward.”

A recent report from the Food Standards Agency found that around 6% of UK adults, or 2.4 million people, are estimated to have a clinically-confirmed food allergy.

Foods such as peanuts, and tree nuts like hazelnuts, walnuts and almonds, are the most likely to cause an allergic reaction, the study found.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Our deepest sympathies are with the family and friends of Hannah Jacobs, and all those impacted by this case.

“Department officials have been in ongoing discussions with the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation about improving support for people with allergies and ministers will carefully consider their views and any recommendations made by the coroner.”