Mother of girl who died from Costa drink criticises allergy training

The mother of a 13-year-old girl who died after having a severe reaction to a Costa Coffee hot chocolate has said allergen safety training should not be treated as a “tick-box exercise”.

The schoolgirl from Barking, east London, who had a severe dairy allergy, died following staff’s “failure to follow [allergy] processes”, a coroner concluded on Friday.

Ms Jacobs died from a hypersensitive anaphylactic reaction within hours of sipping a hot chocolate – which was supposed to be made with soya milk – on February 8, 2023, the East London Coroner’s Court was told.

Assistant coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said there had been a “failure of communication” between the coffee shop staff and Ms Jacobs’ mother, Abimbola Duyile.

The coroner also noted that on the day of her death, “neither Hannah or her mother were carrying an Epi-Pen that had been prescribed”.

“Better awareness is really needed in these industries and across society of the symptoms of anaphylaxis,” a member of Ms Duyile’s legal team read in a statement on her behalf.

“Treating allergy training as a tick-box exercise is not acceptable, being a medical professional and not reacting quickly to even a possible anaphylactic reaction is not acceptable and the consequence of all of this is that my daughter is no longer here.”

Hannah’s mother, Abimbola Duyile, holds a picture of her daughter outside East London Coroner’s Court / Credit: PA

The statement also paid tribute to Ms Duyile’s “vivacious, caring, affectionate” daughter who had “everything to live for”.

At the time of Hannah’s death, allergen training for new Costa staff involved a series of online modules that could be accessed at home, and a quiz that trainees had to pass, the inquest heard.

The court heard written evidence from Costa employees, one of whom said they had failed the quiz 20 times before passing.

Another said that they used Google Translate to help them when reading English.

In the statement read by the family’s legal team, Ms Duyile’s mother said: “Hannah was just entering adolescence and learning to be independent, taking ownership of her allergies, when she was tragically taken from us.

“She had known from a young age what her allergies were and took them very seriously.”

Ms Jacobs’ mother added that her daughter had never suffered a serious allergic reaction in the past.

After the inquest concluded, Costa released a statement calling Ms Jacobs’ death a “tragedy”.

“Understanding how this awful situation occurred is in the interest of everyone – our franchise partners, our customers, our team members, and the communities of which we are a part,” a spokesperson said.

The parents of a 15-year-old girl, Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who died in 2016 following a severe allergic reaction to a Pret a Manger baguette sandwich have called for “urgent” government action to “improve understanding” of allergies across schools, businesses and society in general.

Commenting on the outcome of the inquest, Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse OBE, who founded The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, said the “catalogue of errors” that led to Jacobs death were “heartbreaking.”

“This is yet another death from food allergy that should never have happened. It was entirely preventable,” they added.