Pret says second customer died after ‘reaction’

Reporters A SECOND customer has died from from an allergic reaction to an ingredient in a sandwich bought from Pret A Manger, the firm has said.

On Saturday, the company said the woman died after eating a “super-veg rainbow flatbread” that was supposed to be dairy-free, but was found to be contaminated with dairy.

But, yesterday, the firm blamed by Pret A Manger for supplying a contaminated yoghurt suspected to have caused the second allergy death called the chain’s claims “unfounded”.

Pret is already facing scrutiny over the death of 15-year-old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who was allergic to sesame and died after eating one of its baguettes.

During the inquest into her death, it emerged that another teenager needed hospital treatment after suffering an allergic reaction from eating at a Pret A Manger store in Cardiff in 2015.

The hearing at West London Coroner’s Court was told the Cardiff case was one of nine in the UK where someone had suffered an allergic reaction after eating Pret products containing sesame baked into the bread.

The incident in October 2015 involving the 17-year-old customer was described as “life-threatening”.

Now it has been revealed that another customer collapsed and died on December 27 last year after buying the sandwich in a Pret A Manger store in Stall Street, Bath.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said it investigated supplier CoYo, which then issued an allergy alert and recalled its coconut yoghurts.

But CoYo – a coconut milk brand that has been endorsed by TV cook Nigella Lawson – has denied the recall was linked to the death and accused Pret of hampering its own probe by failing to provide vital information.

“The claims made by Pret are unfounded,” a spokeswoman for CoYo said yesterday.

Pret said it had been “mis-sold” a guaranteed dairy-free yoghurt by CoYo that was discovered to contain dairy protein.

Vegan brand CoYo recalled the yoghurts in February.

But yesterday, CoYo denied this was related to the death, saying that product was supplied to it in January – after the woman’s death.

“The dairy-free product we provided to Pret in December 2017, at the time of this tragedy, is not linked to the product we recalled in February 2018,” a spokeswoman said.

“Pret’s inability to provide us with Natasha EdnanLaperouse, from Fulham, west London, died after she fell ill on a flight from London to Nice after eating a Pret A Manger sandwich a batch code, despite several requests, has severely limited our ability to investigate this further.”

Bath’s council alerted Pret to the incident and the chain said it then withdrew all affected products, ended its CoYo contract and launched legal action.

“Subsequent testing by Pret and two independent authorities found that the CoYo dairy-free yoghurt contained traces of dairy protein,” a Pret spokesman added.

The Food Standards Agency investigated along with Bexley council in London, where CoYo is based, before it issued an allergy alert.