Food allergies can have very severe and sometimes, fatal consequences. This is why the law mandates food providers to disclose ingredients but it ends up being mostly on the consumers to ensure that the foods they eat do not contain anything that they could have serious reactions to. However, even after maintaining all the precautions, sometimes things can go tragically wrong.
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As reported by The Guardian, the tragic death of Celia Marsh is one such incident. She was 42, a dental nurse from Melksham, Wiltshire. On December 27 2017, she consumed what she thought was a vegan Pret A Manger wrap and died due to a fatal reaction to it.
Mrs Marsh was allergic to cow’s milk
Mrs Marsh suffered from a serious allergy to cow’s milk. Though the wrap was labelled as ‘vegan’, it contained vegan yoghurt, which was found to have traces of animal protein in it.
According to Food Allergy, when someone is severely allergic to certain foods, even minute traces are enough to be fatal. And that is unfortunately what transpired for Marsh.
After consuming the wrap, the mother-of-five was on a family shopping trip, she struggled to breathe and ultimately collapsed on the street. She died in the hospital two hours later.
The inquest on her death began this week
According to The Independent, Pret a Manger was charged by Bath and North East Somerset Council with food safety failures, and the inquest into Mrs Marsh’s death began this week.
As per The Guardian, Mrs Marsh’s husband told the inquest how cautious and prudent she was in ensuring that she monitored her food and did not take any risks.
Celia closely monitored her food allergies. She always checked every label before eating and always asked about ingredients. If Celia was not sure about the label or the answers given to her, she would not eat the food as she did not want to take any risks.
The CEO of Pret a Manger, Pano Christou, attended the first day of the inquest in person. The inquest is expected to last about two to three weeks.
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