New regulations stemming from Pret allergy death now taking effect
Pret has pledged to make meaningful changes following the tragedy.
A new food safety law that requires full ingredient and allergen labelling on all food made on premises and pre-packed for direct sale has taken effect.
The new rules, known as "Natasha's Law", came following the death of teenager Natasha Ednan-Laperouse from an allergic reaction caused by a prepacked baguette from Pret a Manger which, at the time, did not require allergen labelling.
Ednan-Laperouse’s parents told the BBC she would be "very proud" of the new regulations.and that she and husband Nadhim had been waiting for this day for years.
"Today we really feel like we've achieved it and it feels really special," Natasha's mother, Tanya Ednan-Laperouse, told BBC Breakfast.
Mr. Ednan-Laperouse said they had created a parliamentary petition online calling for an allergy tsar as a "matter of life and death".
"This is not what a great British nation should accept, that young people can die in this day and age because of the food they eat, when all it takes is more joined-up thinking to better protect them," he said.
The Ednan-Laperouses set up the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation and campaigned for the change in law after a food labelling loophole left Natasha unaware that the baguette she ate contained sesame seeds.
At the 2018 inquest into her death, the coroner concluded that Pret A Manger's allergy labelling was inadequate.
Pret has pledged to make meaningful changes following the tragedy. Two years ago, they introduced full ingredient labels on all freshly made products.
