Charles to host global summit after being ‘moved beyond words’ by teen’s Pret allergy death

The Prince of Wales has said he was “moved beyond words” by the death of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who died from a severe allergic reaction to a Pret baguette.

Charles is hosting a global symposium of allergy scientists at Dumfries House in Scotland organised by The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation.

The 15-year-old died from anaphylaxis after she ate an artichoke, olive, and tapenade baguette from a Pret a Manger store in July 2016.

She had bought it from the chain’s store at Heathrow, unaware that it contained sesame seeds, and had a severe allergic reaction within minutes of her flight taking off for Nice.

Despite her father administrating two Epi-pens on her, Natasha had several cardiac arrests during the flight and died later that day at a French hospital.

The coroner at her inquest in 2018 concluded Natasha would not have eaten the sandwich if she had known the ingredients and allergens, which were not displayed due to a food labelling loophole.

Natasha’s death highlighted the growing allergic epidemic, particularly among children and young people, and shortly after the inquest into her death, Prince Charles suggested bringing the world’s leading allergy and environment experts together to help avoid future tragedies.

Natasha’s parent Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse successfully campaigned to establish Natasha’s Law, requiring all food retailers to display the full ingredients and allergens on every food item made on site or already pre-packed. The law was introduced late last year.

The two-day global symposium on Tuesday and Wednesday will see Charles take part in a roundtable discussion with the scientists and Natasha’s parents.

Seventeen world leading allergy experts from the UK, US, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong and Denmark will attend the event.

Charles said: “I was moved beyond words by the tragic death of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse and the way her parents have selflessly dedicated themselves to preventing other families suffering in the same way.

“That is why my Prince’s Foundation is hosting leading scientists and experts in the field to tackle the environmental causes of allergic disease, so that no more lives are needlessly lost due to allergic reactions.”

Mr Ednan-Laperouse, co-founder of Natasha’s Foundation, said: “We are deeply grateful to HRH The Prince of Wales for inspiring and hosting this momentous event, which will involve many of the world’s leading allergy experts.

“By bringing the scientists together in one room, we hope to identify the most important and effective ways of tackling the allergy epidemic, to prevent other families from enduring the loss and heartbreak that we have had to endure following Natasha’s death.

“This is a real opportunity to draw up a blueprint to make allergy history and will help define the next major research intervention to be supported by Natasha’s Foundation.”