Anaphylaxis Campaign to hold special event to help prevent food business errors

Sep 30 2014

The Anaphylaxis Campaign is set to hold a special event for the food industry on Tuesday 7th October 2014 to help prevent food business errors reaching crisis point.

The Campaign was founded 20 years ago in 1994 by a small group of parents led by David Reading OBE. David’s daughter, Sarah, tragically died aged just 17 from anaphylaxis to peanut in October 1993 while consuming food purchased from the foodservice area of a popular department store.

The event, which will be held at Instinctif’s London corporate headquarters, will seek to highlight the risks food businesses face in catering for allergic consumers and managing these from a technical, as well as public relations perspective.

This conference follows recent media attention, after allergic consumers and patient groups became concerned about the way in which two high profile companies, Tesco and Alpro, labelled products and comes ahead of the incoming European Food Information Regulations which come in to force in December 2014.

It also comes as last week, Professor Chris Elliott of Queen’s University Belfast, who headed up the government’s inquiry into the horsemeat scandal, has expressed concern over recent price rises and resultant ingredient substitutions he fears could pose a danger to allergic consumers.

The event will bring together around 100 delegates from the food industry. Speakers will include representatives from the Food Standards Agency, Trading Standards and Anaphylaxis Campaign Co-Founder David Reading OBE.

David said:

The death of my daughter and so many other young people from something so unassuming was very shocking at the time – and continues to be. Twenty years ago it was clear there was very little awareness of how serious allergy could be. We have made great steps in improving awareness levels amongst the general public, food industry and within government and but this event is a chance to highlight the continuing risks faced by both allergic consumers – but also food businesses, in an era where consumer issues can be amplified like never before.

Lynne Regent, Anaphylaxis Campaign CEO said:

This event is vital to the food industry. We want to deliver the message that although accidents happen, they do not have to end with fatal consequences, as long as the line of communication between businesses and consumers is kept open and transparent. This event will help to make all those in the industry more aware of their responsibilities and give access to the best people to help solve individual issues.

Source: http://www.anaphylaxis.org.uk/