Sadiq will join jury
LONDON mayor Sadiq Khan has revealed he will be doing jury service from next week.
Mr Khan, who has seen his poll ratings drop as public concern about violent crime in the capital has heightened, said he would work in the evenings and on days when he is not needed in court.
Announcing the move on the mayoral Facebook page, Mr Khan wrote: “Jurors have a vital role in our legal system, and it’s important that everyone eligible plays their part.” THE family of a teenager who died after suffering an allergic reaction to a Pret A Manger sandwich have said her inquest must serve as a “watershed moment”.
They are calling for a change in the law on food labelling to save lives after Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, 15, from Fulham, collapsed on a British Airways flight from London to Nice in July 2016.
She had been on her way to a four-day break in France with her father and best friend when she bought an artichoke, olive and tapenade baguette as they passed through Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5.
Video footage released by her family shows Natasha smiling, putting her thumbs up moments before she fell ill.
Pret boss Clive Schlee said the food chain was “deeply sorry” for her death after Coroner Dr Sean Cummings recorded a narrative conclusion at West London Coroner’s Court yesterday.
Natasha’s father Nadim, 53, read a statement outside court along with his wife Tanya, 51, and son Alex, 15. He said they believed the inquest showed his daughter had died because of “inadequate food labelling laws”.
“It feels to us that if Pret A Manger were following the law, then the law was playing Russian roulette with our daughter’s life,” he said.
“It’s clear that the food labelling laws as they stand today are not fit for purpose and it is now time to change the law.
“Natasha’s inquest should serve as a watershed moment to make meaningful change and to save lives.”
The coroner said Natasha died of anaphylaxis after eating a Pret baguette containing sesame, to which she was allergic.
“There was no specific allergen information on the baguette packaging or on the [food display cabinet] and Natasha was reassured by that,” he added.
Dr Cummings said he would make a report to Environment Secretary Michael Gove over whether large businesses should be able to benefit from regulation 5 of the Food Information Regulations.
The rule allows for reduced food labelling on products made in shops and does not require identification of allergens in bold labelling on the packet.
Jill Paterson, lawyer for the family from law firm Leigh Day, called on Mr Gove to take immediate action.
She said: “The law as it stands currently treats multinational companies in the same way as a local sandwich shop. This cannot be right.”
Pret relied on stickers on display units highlighting that allergy information was available by asking staff or looking online.
The coroner said that although regulators had assessed the arrangements as being within the law, he added: “I am of the view that they were inadequate in terms of visibility.”
During the inquest, it emerged that a “specific warning” about the dangers of not signposting the allergen had been given to the food chain the previous year.