Lessons for food business owners from a recent food allergen incident!

In January 2015, a 24 year old lady bought a cupcake from an East London café.  The lady had a  severe acute anaphylactic shock after biting into the cupcake. This was because the lemon-flavoured cake’s icing was made with cashew cream.

Quote from article (Evening standard 27th July 2015)

 “She is now suing the Hackney cafe over her “terrifying” ordeal. Tiosk, in Broadway Market, has admitted liability and is set to make a payout because it did not have the correct allergy warning signs in place. Co-owner of Tiosk, Natasha Kelly, 48, said: “Tiosk admit that we didn’t have the newly required food information sign ‘ask about allergens’ at the time of the incident. Ms Gosrani unfortunately did not ask about the ingredients despite an apparent life-threatening allergy.” Read full account of incident from here:

As s food business owner, are you complying with EU Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers ? Are you complying with relevant guidance issued about these regulations?

If a customer purchased one of your food products and ended up having an anaphylactic shock because they forgot to ask about allergens, would you have a good defence?