A jury has found Pret A Manger not guilty of a food safety offence following an incident in which a student suffered a severe allergic reaction after eating a sandwich containing sesame.
Isobel Colnaghi suffered a severe allergic reaction after purchasing a sandwich from the firm’s shop at Bath’s SouthGate shopping centre on November 26 2017.
She checked the packaging of the curried chickpea and mango chutney sandwich before asking a staff member whether the item contained sesame, to which she is allergic.
Bristol Crown Court heard the staff member failed to check the store’s allergen guide – which would have confirmed that the sandwich did contain sesame – and wrongly told Miss Colnaghi it did not after looking at a shelf label.
Pret A Manger (Europe) Ltd denied one charge of selling food not of the substance demanded, contrary to Section 14 of the Food Safety Act 1990.
A jury acquitted the company of the charge on Tuesday afternoon following a week-long trial.
Judge Euan Ambrose told the jury in the Pret A Manger trial at Bristol Crown Court: “That verdict brings the trial to a close and brings your involvement, and everyone else’s in this case, to a close.
“All that remains is for me to say a few words of thanks to you because you have given up a week and a bit of your time.
“We are extremely grateful to you for doing jury service.”
A spokeswoman for Pret A Manger said: “We welcome the court’s decision in relation to this incident in 2017.
“At Pret we continue to do everything we can to support customers with allergies and in 2019, we became the first food-to-go business to introduce full ingredient labels on all freshly made products.
“We remain 100% committed to the actions we set out in the Pret Allergy Plan, so that every customer has the information they need to make the right choice for them. We wish Ms Colnaghi all the best for the future.”
