Wyre Borough Council to work with Trading Standards over fatal allergic reaction risks

The borough council will work with Trading Standards at the county council to tackle the dangers of cross-contamination in food sold to the public at eateries and takeaways.

It comes after the inquest into the death of Natasha Ednan-Laperous, which was followed by a debate over allergen labelling laws.

The 15-year-old, from Fulham in London, died after a sandwich she ate contained sesame seed – without her being aware of it.

A second person, Celia Marsh, 42, from Melksham, also died in similar circumstances, it was reported last week.

A meeting of councillors last night was set to hear more details, with Wyre’s health boss Coun Lynn Bowen saying in a report: “In order to prevent future incidents of this nature, it is important that all food businesses avoid cross contamination of ingredients from one product to another.

“As a result of a recent training event and joint working with the Trading Standards department, we have recently started to increase the time spent with businesses discussing allergens in food and identifying potential allergen cross contamination issues.”

Coun Bowen, the leisure, health and community engagement portfolio holder, added: “This issue has come more to the forefront following some very tragic cases recently.

“In the past we did not think much about these sort of dangers but now we are more aware and need to ensure food outlets know what they need to do to try and prevent these tragedies.

“We are looking to get the message across to food businesses in Wyre about the importance of keeping food stuffs separate and also labelling food which contains allegens. Better signage is vital.”

Crackdown

Ministers were urged to move efforts to improve food allergen labelling to the top of their “to-do lists”.

Environment Minister David Rutley vowed to tackle food labelling as a “matter of urgency” as the case of 15-year-old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who was allergic to sesame and died after eating a Pret A Manger baguette, was raised in the Commons.