Pret pays compensation to family of woman who died after eating ‘vegan’ sandwich

Pret A Manger has paid compensation to the family of an allergy sufferer who died after eating a ‘dairy free’ sandwich purchased from the chain.

Celia Marsh, 42, died in 2017 after eating a Super Veg vegan wrap which was contaminated with milk.

The mother-of-five purchased the wrap at 2.08pm, and within 15 minutes entered acute anaphylactic shock. She was declared dead at 4pm.

The yogurt dressing in the wrap was later found to contain traces of milk protein stemming from starch manufactured in a facility handling dairy products.

It was sold under the CoYo branding in the UK and manufactured by Planet Coconut, which did not alert Pret A Manger to the risk despite possessing documentation that flagged the issue.

After the inquest, Marsh’s husband Andy launched a personal injury lawsuit at London’s High Court against Pret A Manger and Planet Coconut.

According to The Times, Marsh has now agreed an out-of-court settlement for £1.25m, with Pret A Manger liable for 25% while Planet Coconut’s insurers will pay the rest.

A spokesperson for Pret A Manger told The Caterer: “We can confirm that Pret has contributed to a settlement with Celia Marsh’s family. While we know this will never make up for the death of Celia, we wanted to play our part in resolving this and help the family move on from this tragedy.”

In a prevention of future deaths report following the inquest in 2022, coroner Maria Voisin warned that labelling food ‘free-from’ and ‘vegan’ could mislead the public over the allergens present.

Pret A Manger has since stopped sourcing products from Planet Coconut and no longer makes any free-from claims on freshly made products.

Planet Coconut carried out a nationwide recall of all CoYo products in 2018 following an allergen alert from the Food Standards Agency.

Marsh’s death followed that of 15-year-old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who died in 2016 after eating a Pret A Manger baguette containing sesame seeds bought from Heathrow Airport.

The tragedy sparked an overhaul of food labelling laws which now requires retailers to display full ingredient and allergen labelling on every food item made on the premises and pre-packed for direct sale.