Pret A Manger to fully label ingredients following death of 15-year-old girl
British food retailer Pret A Manger has said it will change its labelling policy to ensure that all ingredients in its foods are listed.
The company, which has more than 530 outlets in nine regions including in the UK, Hong Kong, the USA, China - said earlier this week that meaningful change would come following the death of Natasha Ednan-Laperous who suffered a severe allergic reaction after buying a baguette at the chain's Heathrow Terminal 5 outlet.
The bubbly 15-year-old, according to her parents "loved life, boys, her friends and dreamt of being a pilot." She also suffered from a severe allergy to sesame.
Throughout her short life, her parents took extra care to ensure that she only ate foods that wouldn't cause her to have an adverse reaction. The nature of her allergies first came to light when she was less than a year old after eating a banana. It was a few months later when she was weaning that she had an allergic reaction to dairy.
Natasha's parents, Nadim and Tanya, took extra care to ensure that everything she ate was produced in a controlled environment - checking labels, washing utensils thoroughly and keeping a close eye on ingredients. Her parents thought they had her allergies under close control.
Natasha's mother told Good Morning Britain: “When you have an allergic child, and every parent with an allergic child will understand this, your life changes in a second. You don’t relax around food ever, what goes in your shopping basket, and what gets cooked and how even utensils are washed becomes a very, very different lifestyle and you become a private investigator for your child. You pack their food for them for school, you don’t want anyone to touch their food, they have to know not to touch food offered to them.”
It was during a flight to France for a family holiday that their world turned upside-down. . Natasha had purchased a baguette from food retailer Pret A Manger at Heathrow Terminal 5 ahead of the British Airways flight.
She was excited to find something she was able to eat, telling her father: "Look Daddy this is great, I can eat this."
The artichoke, olive and tapenade baguette contained some of her favourite foods - but it also had sesame baked into the bread, an ingredient that the 15-year-old was severly allergic to.
Her father, Nadim, inspected the sandwich before she bought it. He told Good Morning Britain: "There was information but confusing information. They have [disputed any information was on it].”
Halfway through the British Airways flight to Nice, Natasha began to eat the baguette. Her body quickly reacted to it - an episode described by her father as "like an explosion".
Cabin Crew on the plane attempted to treat the 15-year-old but failed to use a defribrillator that was on board the plane as it descended into Nice - instead prioritising the opening of the planes doors, as per procedure.
Natasha died later that day.
Her father said that use of the defibrillator, among other measures, could have kept his daughter alive.
Pret boss promises 'meaningful change'
An inquest into Natasha's death found that Pret A Manger did not label products containing sesame, despite there being several previous cases of allergic reactions to the food. Businesses are not required to print allergy information onto food that is produced on-site, the Court heard.
Earlier this week, Pret A Manger's chief executive said: "We have heard everything the Coroner and Natasha's family have said this week. And we will learn from this. All of us at Pret want to see meaningful change come from this tragedy. We will make sure that it does."