Death of girl, 13, caused by Costa staff’s ‘failure to follow allergy process’

The death of a 13-year-old girl was caused by Costa Coffee staff failing to follow allergy processes when they served her a hot chocolate, an inquest has concluded.

Hannah Jacobs died within hours of having a few sips of the drink on Feb 8 2023, East London coroner’s court was told on Friday.

She was severely allergic to dairy, fish, and eggs.

Dr Shirley Radcliffe, assistant coroner, said: “The root cause of this death is a failure to follow the processes in place to discuss allergies combined with a failure of communication between the mother and the barista.”

Abimbola Duyile, Hannah’s mother, previously told East London coroner’s court she had ordered two hot chocolates made with soya milk, and told staff of her daughter’s severe dairy allergies.

They had popped into the Costa Coffee branch in Station Parade, Barking, owned and operated by a franchisee, before a dentist appointment.

Urmi Akter, the barista, previously said that when she took the order from Ms Duyile, she was asked by the woman to wash the jug the drink was made in because her daughter had a dairy allergy.

The court heard how Ms Akter said she had repeated the woman’s request that the jug be washed out, and claimed she had pointed out that the hot chocolate is made from milk.

Under Costa’s rules, customers who ask for non-dairy products or who say they have a dietary requirement should be shown a book which lists the ingredients of each drink, and how it is made.

Ms Akter told the court she did not show the woman the book as she had been assured that washing the jug would be fine.

Ms Duyile insisted that she had asked for soya drinks and said she was being “extra picky”, the court heard.

Hypersensitive anaphylactic reaction

Neither Hannah nor her mother were carrying the epipen prescribed for the child’s severe allergy to cow’s milk at the time.

Later, when Hannah began to feel unwell while tasting the drink on the way to the dentist, she was offered an epipen, which her mother refused.

She decided instead to go to the chemist for antihistamines, Iqra Farhad, a dentist, earlier told the court.

Previously giving evidence to the court, Santokh Kahlon, a pharmacist, said the chemist had no epipens owing to general shortages, and said he would have “definitely used” the one the dentist had offered if he had known about it.

A post-mortem examination found Hannah died after suffering from a hypersensitive anaphylactic reaction triggered by an ingredient in her hot chocolate that caused an allergic response.

Analysis of the mother and daughter’s cups by Barking and Dagenham council found no traces of soya milk but “substantial levels” of milk protein.

Allergen safety training was online quiz

The inquest heard that at the time of the death of Hannah, the allergy training for Costa staff was an online portal and quiz that could be accessed and completed from home.

Ms Duyile said that treating allergen safety training as a “tick box exercise is not acceptable”.

A member of Ms Duyile’s legal team read a statement outside East London coroner’s court on her behalf, saying: “Better awareness is really needed in these industries and across society of the symptoms of anaphylaxis.

“Allowing people who serve food and drinks to retake an allergy training test for 20 times is not acceptable.”

Ms Duyile also paid tribute to her “vivacious, caring, affectionate” daughter who had “everything to live for” while holding a framed photograph of Hannah and cried as the statement was read out on her behalf to reporters outside the court.

The parents of a 15-year-old girl who died following a severe allergic reaction to a Pret a Manger baguette containing sesame have called for “urgent” government action to “improve understanding” of allergies across schools, businesses and wider society.

“We need urgent government action to improve understanding within schools, businesses and society that food allergies can be a serious, unpredictable health condition, not a lifestyle choice, and ensure people with allergies have access to joined up and timely NHS allergy care,” said Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse, co-founders of The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, a food allergy charity.

“Today, along with Hannah’s grief-stricken mum Abi and on behalf of other parents who have lost children to food allergies, we once again urge the Government to appoint an allergy tsar – a national champion for the one in three people who live not just with food allergies, but all types of allergic disease including asthma and eczema.”