Dad: Tighten up on allergy peril drinks
SON’S NEAR-TRAGEDY SPARKS CALL FOR CATERING INDUSTRY ACTION
A DAD has called for tighter procedures within the restaurant industry over allergies, after his son suffered a severe reaction to a smoothie bought at McDonald’s.
David Tyfa, 55, ordered the Mango smoothie from McDonald’s, on John William Street, in Huddersfield town centre, and explained to the cashier that his son, James, was allergic to dairy and requested that the yoghurt be removed.
The cashier said it would be, and placed the order before David and James collected the drink and set off walking to their home in Marsh.
But, as they passed through Greenhead Park, James’ breathing became wheezy and quickly got worse.
Within minutes, his breathing was very restricted and James, who was seven at the time of the 2017 incident, was very distressed.
He had severe swelling around his eyes and swelling around his mouth.
Dad David gave James, who is now nine, his inhaler, carried him home and gave him some antihistamine before ringing for an ambulance.
The crew arrived quickly and gave James, who, as well as dairy, is also allergic to sesame, chickpeas and nuts and is asthmatic, a nebuliser, which meant dad David did not have to use an epi-pen on his son.
David has now spoken out about the lack of procedures in the restaurant and fast-food industry, after seeing news coverage of the inquest into the death of Owen Carey, who died after eating grilled chicken at Byron Burger, in the same year.
In a statement outside Southwark Coroner’s Court last week, Mr Carey’s family called on the food industry to “put the safety of their customers first.”
David, a psychology lecturer at the University of Huddersfield, said: “James recovered, but the doctors said he had suffered an anaphylactic reaction. I spoke to the manager the next day and she was very apologetic and said it was down to human error.
“So, I wrote to McDonald’s to check what processes are in place, and I only ever received automated responses and an apology.
“There needs to be stricter processes in place and, as well as providing the ingredient information, restaurants should be open about the processes they have in place regarding allergies.
“There is currently too much room for error and there should be written, standardised protocols, automatic checks and thorough training.”
He said restaurants could label foods when ingredients have been removed.
McDonald’s said that an investigation, after the incident in 2017, had found human error to be at fault and that all staff were reminded of the procedures to take when serving a customer with allergens.
In a statement, they added: “We apologise that this was not followed correctly in this instance.”
The restaurant chain added that allergen booklets were available in all branches.
McDonald’s admitted that, although staff tried to keep things separate, it was impossible to guarantee that an item was free of allergens, even after ingredients had been removed on request.