Food Labelling and Allergies

Nick Fletcher Excerpts

Monday 15th May 2023 Westminster Hall

[Nick Fletcher (Don Valley) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered e-petitions 585304 and 589716, relating to food labelling and support for people with allergies.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Graham. I thank the petitioners for their campaign; I know that they are here today. Together, the petitions have received over 33,000 signatures. The first petition states:

“The Government should appoint an Allergy Tsar to act as a champion for people with allergies to ensure they receive appropriate support and joined up health care to prevent avoidable deaths”.

The second petition, on Owen’s law, asks for a change in the law around labelling in UK restaurants. It has three parts. First, it asks that restaurants

“put all information about allergens in their food on the face of the main menu so customers have full visibility on what they're ordering.”

Secondly, it requires servers to

“initiate a discussion with customers about allergies on all occasions”.

Finally, it states that there should be a register for all anaphylaxis deaths.

Those are the petitions, and I will discuss why the petitioners are asking for these measures. Sadly, they have suffered unbearable losses. Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died in 2016 after eating a baguette that did not have a complete list of ingredients. The baguette contained sesame seeds, to which Natasha was allergic. That caused her to suffer an allergic reaction, which resulted in her death. She was only 15—so young. Natasha’s parents Tanya and Nadim have already been successful in their campaign for Natasha’s law, which enforces a requirement for all pre-packed sandwiches to contain a list of ingredients and which became law in October 2021.

The second petition was started by Owen Carey’s sister Emma. Owen suffered from multiple allergies all his life and was used to ordering meals for his restricted diet. In April 2017, he ordered a chicken burger at a restaurant. He explained his allergies to the server; with no other information available, he was assured that he was safe. However, the chicken was marinated in buttermilk, to which Owen was very allergic. He knew instantly that something was wrong. He had a massive reaction and, after 45 minutes, collapsed and died. He died celebrating his 18th birthday—again, so young. They were both young people with their entire life ahead of them. We can all clearly see why Natasha and Owen’s families want to stop anyone else going through this.

I spoke to the families of Natasha and Owen so that they could explain to me in their own words exactly what they are trying to achieve. I am grateful to them for that. It appears that both petitions go hand in hand. The petitioners believe that if we had a tsar, they would have a champion who could work with families who have suffered bereavement and with charities that want to help, along with frontline staff, proprietors, supply chain businesses, the Food Standards Agency and all Government Departments that share an interest. It is a straightforward ask.

[Margaret Ferrier (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (Ind)]

The FSA has highlighted the fact that while young people are more likely to experience a food allergy, they are less likely to tell a café or restaurant about it, especially if they have eaten there before. Does the hon. Member agree that we must empower young people to speak up about their allergies and make businesses aware of the importance of proactively asking customers about their potential allergies?

[Nick Fletcher]

The hon. Member is exactly right. I was forwarded a list of many people who have fallen foul of that, and they always seem to be so young. I will definitely come on to what the hon. Member has mentioned.

The second petition seems relatively simple, too. How difficult can it be to put on a menu what allergens are in each piece of food? In fact there is already a law requiring that, but it falls short by requiring it “by any means”, which often means that allergen information is missed by those who need it most. The petitioners say that the law needs tightening up, but they are flexible in their ask: they say that allergens must be stated on the face of the menu, but that could be in paper format or electronic. For a server to make sure that a discussion is had seems another simple ask, and a list of the sad losses could be dealt with through the coroner’s office.

But as with many things in life, it is not quite as simple as all that. The industry is huge. Billions of pounds are spent each year on food from outlets of varying sizes. We have all been to a local caff or McDonald’s; some of us have been fortunate enough to go to some rather expensive restaurants in hotels with branches around the world. Then there are those in the middle, the squeezed small and medium-sized enterprises. Therein lies the problem: the variation among outlets and what and how they serve.

Fast food chains give a specification to their suppliers of the ingredients that their food is to contain, with no variations—that is what they ask for and that is what they get. But other outlets, big and small, often get swaps when they order their ingredients, pretty much like when we get an online supermarket delivery. A local caff may be able to cope with that, with a good proprietor keeping a check on what they are sent and very few menu changes throughout the year, if any. It may not be too much of a problem for them, but the large restaurants and some of the independents with fast-moving kitchens may struggle.

We have all seen a chef with 40 covers to do bellowing in someone’s ear, pots and pans everywhere, hot kitchens with hot atmospheres, young people trying to learn their trade, and impatient customers breathing down a server’s neck. These are high-pressure situations, often in open kitchens, and these people are all trying to make a living. Mistakes will happen.

Then there are menu changes. Many restaurants change their menu frequently to add to the customer experience. They have to offer a variety to keep it fresh, and hopefully in season too, but every change brings a problem—another allergy list and another place for an error to occur. It is not as easy as one first thought.

[Margaret Ferrier]

Data from 2022 published by the FSA shows that when dealing with a risk of food allergies, smaller manufacturers will focus on the physical separation and secure storage of ingredients. In comparison, medium-sized manufacturers will take further steps such as cleaning between production runs and managing the packaging, labels and transport of products. Does the hon. Member agree that businesses of all sizes should have access to personalised guidance on how they can improve their allergy awareness in risk assessment?

[Nick Fletcher]

I will be coming on to that point, but I believe that an allergy tsar, which the first petition asks for, will be able to bring those concerns together. That would help the industry immensely.

There are companies out there such as Control Catering that want to work with the Food Standards Agency and the industry to create a single source of truth. They want to work with manufacturers so that all data is seamlessly passed to the end user, the customer or diner. The petitioners believe that that is a sensible idea, as we have over 50,000 products across a huge supply chain going to many different outlets and 60 million-plus people across this land. The British Institute of Innkeeping and Hospitality Allergen Support UK feel it is sensible, too, but apparently the FSA is slow to respond when contacted about it. The industry believes that unless we have a joined-up approach, we could end up putting forward legislation that has the best intentions but turns out to be completely unworkable. I know that there is much more that the petitioners would have me say, but I must move on in the hope that other MPs will add their thoughts on the complexity of the issue.

The second part of Owen’s law would be for all servers to start a discussion with customers about allergies so that customers do not have to ask. My own experience is that that is happening anyway. However, I am fortunate enough to be able to answer no, so I am unsure how deep the conversation goes if the answer is yes. Stakeholders feel that training is required for all servers, but I understand that the industry suffers from a high turnover of staff, so that is not an easy task.

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion) (PC)]

I am grateful to the hon. Member for introducing this important debate. There is very often a high turnover of staff in the hospitality trade, but does he agree that technology such as electronic forms and QR codes might help? Even though staff members might work in a restaurant for only a couple of months at a time, such technology would enable them to quickly check when asked what ingredients are in the food they are serving.

[Nick Fletcher]

The hon. Member is right. As we move forward in the digital age, we will be able to put options on menus that the server can discuss with the diners and things like that. Maybe the conversation should always be instigated, but if the answer is yes and the server is not adequately trained, they should be assisted by a person with higher authority or even the chef. Again, that may be difficult to implement, but a conversation must take place with an outcome that protects anyone who suffers with allergies.

Before I move on from this point, though, let me say that I believe that there is a responsibility on people who suffer with allergies to make that known. They must play their part. I know many are young, but I am a firm believer in personal responsibility and we must give the catering industry a chance. We must help it to help us if the system is not quite working as it should. All of us who are fortunate enough not to suffer should support those who do by being patient, by showing a caring attitude when ordering our food with guests and, if it is our child who suffers, maybe even by ordering what they order. That would help our children and the restaurateur, and it would show some skin in the game. If we want change, we should be prepared to bear a little cost ourselves and to make ourselves a little uncomfortable for the cause. The state cannot and should not be the answer to everything. We should all play our part.

Finally, Owen’s law asks that we maintain a list of all people who have died from anaphylactic shock. It would not necessarily be for the public domain or even name where the tragedy occurred, but it would be recorded to make the Government and all stakeholders aware of the size of the problem and to aid work on prevention as well as a cure. Professor Adam Fox believes that there should also be a list of near misses. Near misses are recorded in the construction industry; they should be recorded here, too. If we know the size of the problem, it may focus our attention on why there is a problem. Why are 40% of the population suffering with some kind of allergy? To me, that is the real question.

We can now see why the petitioners believe that the introduction of a tsar could help with the second petition’s aim of instigating Owen’s law. They believe that if we do nothing, we will see more tragedies, and if the industry simply states, “All our food may contain certain ingredients,” people with hypersensitivity will stay away. Some stakeholders believe that if we move too quickly with poor regulation, we will damage the industry and no doubt close businesses. So do we do nothing? Well, the petitioners and the industry at large agree that there should be a change, and appointing a tsar who could lead on solutions may just do that. It may help to bring forward legislation or ideas that will not only save lives, but save an industry that is battling on many fronts simply to stay afloat. I look forward to listening to what colleagues and the Minister have to say.

--- Later in debate ---

[Nick Fletcher]

I hope the petitioners believe that they have heard a good debate today. We have heard an awful lot from people who understand this subject. They all want to help to bring everything together and ensure that the incidents and tragedies that have happened to the petitioners do not happen again. It seems to me that there is a lot of work going on, but in many cases it is siloed working, and a tsar would be able to bring it together. We could pick up the pace with that and prevent tragedies like those we have discussed from happening again.

One of the easiest things that restaurants could do would be to say that all their menus may contain something. Although that would cover them in some ways, it would take choice away for a lot of people. We need to get ahead of the issue. We need to look at it and see what we can do so that there is as much choice for everybody, and everybody can dine and eat safely. I believe that a tsar is probably the best way forward to start with. I appreciate the Minister acknowledging that there is an issue there; he has made copious amounts of notes to take away and work through with his Department.

I refer back to the part about personal responsibility. Obviously there is still work to be done, so to ensure that tragedies do not happen we must all work together to support and help individuals who we know suffer and ensure that those questions get asked if somebody forgets to say something. It is not something that should be ridiculed; it is massively important to people. We have a duty to look after everybody in society while we get food labelling to the place where it should be. May I finish by thanking the petitioners for all their work, hon. Members for contributing—I appreciate it, and I am sure it is appreciated by the petitioners—and the Minister for his comments?

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered e-petitions 585304 and 589716, relating to food labelling and support for people with allergies.