Food Allergy Awareness Week 2022

Food Allergy Awareness Week 2022: May 8^th – May 14^th

Throughout this week, the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Connection Team (FAACT) will be raising awareness to promote education into food allergens and anaphylaxis. The information which will be highlighted includes:

• The common foods which account for 90% of all food allergy reactions: Peanut, Tree, Nut, Egg, Soy, Dairy, Wheat, Fish, Shellfish and Sesame.
• The importance of reading food labels and ensuring that foods are labelled correctly.
• The use of warm/hot soapy water to clean surfaces and prevent cross-contamination.
• The potential life-threatening risks of suffering from an allergic reaction and the importance of being able to provide medical support and administer epinephrine promptly.

According to the Food Standards Agency, about 10 people die each year from food induced anaphylaxis in the UK alone. For these reasons, it is important for businesses to ensure that their members of staff understand food allergens and have adequate measures, standards, and checks in place to ensure that customers who inform them of their allergies are not at risk.

How we can help

Food allergy claims can be extremely severe in certain cases. Foods that may be safe to be consumed by most people could be dangerous, or even fatal, in trace quantities to a food allergy sufferer. For this reason alone, it is important that claimants are receiving the best possible legal advice.

Typical situations in which food allergy claims arise are where :-

• A customer has informed members of staff of their food allergy and was still served food which contained ingredients that were not suitable.
• A customer has informed members of staff of their food allergy and was served food that was cross contaminated with ingredients which were not suitable.
• Menus at a restaurant are mislabelled and a customer consumes food which unknowingly contains ingredients which were not suitable.
• Ingredient/Allergy labels displayed on packaged products contain misinformation and unknowingly contain ingredients which are not suitable.

Our International Serious Injury and Public Health department are prepared to assist in advising individuals who have suffered from anaphylaxis or other allergen related illnesses.

If you require any advice or assistance, please feel free to contact our International Serious Injury and Public Health Department who are more than happy to assist.