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PA
Restaurants should list all ingredients they use to avoid allergy deaths, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has said.
The FSA told ministers food outlets should place labels on products, which include a full list of ingredients with all 14 major allergens highlighted.
The proposals follow the death of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who died after eating a sandwich from Pret a Manger.
Pret a Manger has already started rolling out full labelling on all its products.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will have the final say over whether new rules are introduced.
The proposed changes follow the death of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who had an allergy to sesame seeds and died after eating a sandwich from Pret a Manger.
Her death focused public attention on food allergen labelling.
At the moment food prepared on the same site it is sold, doesn’t have to have warning labels about allergens, because it is assumed anyone who needs to know will ask the staff who made it about the food’s ingredients.
The flaw in that system was exposed by the death of 15-year-old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse who collapsed after eating a baguette from Pret a Manger which contained sesame seeds, to which she was allergic.
The FSA board discussed several options, ranging from promoting best practice in the food industry to making labelling of allergens mandatory. The agency decided to recommend that ministers change the law so food outlets must label all food with a full list of ingredients, highlighting the 14 major allergens, including nuts, eggs and dairy products.
