Those responsible for the manufacture, production and serving of food have a duty of care to ensure that those members of society that have a dietary requirement can be confident in the information provided by those working within the food industry.
Key components in this confidence are Communication and Training.
Zayaan Hussain’s family took him to Pizza Hut in April 2018 and asked the waiter for a vegan pizza for their toddler who has a severe dairy allergy. The waiter ordered the vegetarian option and when he served it to the family he assured them that it was the vegan option. The family communicated to the waiter on 4 separate occasions about the allergy and the need to ensure there was no risk of cross contamination. Before letting their son eat the pizza when it arrived Mr Hussain again confirmed that it was a vegan pizza which the waiter assured him was the case.
10 minutes after Zayaan had started to consume the pizza the life threatening reaction started to affect the small child with vomiting and an inability to breathe. He was taken to hospital in Blackpool where he spent 2 days. Click here to read the full article.
In May 2019 a court found that the Pizza Hut waiter had mistakenly put vegetarian pizza on the order instead of vegan and had later tried to hide his mistake. He was ordered to pay costs of £830 to the court, £800 to the family and fined £290. He was also terminated from his employment from Pizza Hut for Gross Misconduct. Click here to read the outcome
