A “vivacious, caring and affectionate” girl with a severe dairy allergy died after drinking a Costa Coffee hot chocolate made with cows’ milk due to a “failure to follow the processes in place to discuss allergies”, a coroner has ruled.
Hannah Jacobs, 13, of Barking, east London, died within hours of sipping the drink bought by her mother on 8 February 2023.
Assistant coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe also found there had been “failure of communication” between the coffee shop staff and Hannah’s mother Abimbola Duyile.
Following the inquest, Ms Duyile said she had “always been very diligent about managing Hannah’s allergies and she’d never suffered a serious allergic reaction prior to this incident”.
She added: “Hannah loved life. She was a vivacious, caring, affectionate, outspoken and energetic child with a strong sense of right and wrong.
“Hannah had everything to live for and was so full of life and promise.
“Having heard all the evidence over the last week it is clear to me that although the food service industry and medical professionals are required to have allergy training, this training is really not taken seriously enough
“Better awareness is needed in these industries and across society of the symptoms of anaphylaxis.”
East London Coroner’s Court heard that on the day of her death neither Hannah or her mother were carrying an epi-pen that had been prescribed.
Hannah and her mother visited the Costa Coffee branch in Station Parade, Barking, owned and operated by a franchisee, to buy two soya hot chocolates before Hannah attended the dentist.
Barista Urmi Akter previously said she took the order from Ms Duyile and said she had repeated the mother’s request that a jug be washed out, and pointed out hot chocolate is made from milk.
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.
Dr Radcliffe 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.”
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 society generally.
Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse, co-founders of The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, a food allergy charity, said: “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.
“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.”
