Pret A Manger confirms second customer has died after allergic reaction to sandwich

Posted on | by Free-From Heaven

A second customer died from an allergic reaction to an ingredient in a sandwich bought from Pret A Manger, the firm has confirmed.

pret a manger allergic reaction

A second customer is believed to have died from an allergic reaction to a product bought from Pret a Manager, the chain has said.

The person died in 2017 after eating a “super-veg rainbow flatbread” purchased from the sandwich in a store in Bath which was supposed to be dairy-free. The sandwich chain said it had been mis-sold a guaranteed dairy-free yoghurt that was found to contain dairy protein.

CoYo

Pret said the yoghurt in the product was supplied by Coyo – a coconut milk brand which is stocked in shops and supermarkets across the UK. Bath’s council alerted Pret to the incident and the chain said it then withdrew all affected products. The chain said it had ended its contract with CoYo and is taking legal action.

Coconut milk brand CoYo recalled its yoghurts in February after dairy traces were found. The Food Standards Agency investigated along with Bexley council in London, where CoYo is based, before it issued an allergy alert.

Pret on Saturday said CoYo “mis-sold to Pret a guaranteed dairy-free yoghurt that was found to contain dairy protein. This is believed to have resulted in the tragic death of a customer from an allergic reaction in December 2017,” a spokesman said.

“Subsequent testing by Pret and two independent authorities found that the CoYo dairy-free yoghurt contained traces of dairy protein,” the spokesman continued.

However, CoYo insisted that particular recall was not linked to the product it supplied Pret in December, adding Pret’s claims were “unfounded” as the product recalled in February was only supplied to the sandwich chain in January
“Pret’s inability to provide us with a batch code, despite several requests, has severely limited our ability to investigate this further,” CoYo said in a statement.
“In February 2018, working closely with Bexley local authority and the FSA, we issued a precautionary product recall after trace amounts of dairy ingredients were identified in materials used to make our product. This contamination was traced to a third-party supplier who we no longer work with,” it added.
“We have always taken food safety and allergen control extremely seriously. As a consequence of the UK withdrawal, CoYo has tightened its controls to now test all ingredients prior to use through a third party, even where suppliers guarantee them to be free of dairy protein,” it said.
It stressed all CoYo manufacturing facilities were solely dairy-free and did not produce any dairy products. “CoYo will continue to co-operate with all authorities and assist the inquest in finding the true cause. We urge all parties to work together, and not to speculate on the cause of this tragic death, which is unknown as far as we are aware and is still being investigated by the coroner’s court.”

Labelling

Pret announced on Wednesday it will include full ingredient labelling on all of its products and the Government is considering a law change after the death of NatashaEdnan-Laperouse.

Pret A Manger is already facing scrutiny over the death of 15-year-old Natasha, who was allergic to sesame and died after eating one of its baguettes. She collapsed on board a flight in July 2016 after eating an artichoke, olive and tapenade baguette she had bought in Heathrow Airport.