A war of words has erupted between Pret a Manger and a vegan supplier CoYo as it emerged that a second customer died after eating one of the chain’s sandwiches in 2017.
Pret blamed the second death, caused by eating a supposed dairy-free flatbread, on an ingredient supplied by CoYo, a claim that the yoghurt brand said in a statement was unfounded. Pret said it had been mis-sold the yoghurt that forms one of the ingredients of the bread and said it was found to contain dairy protein.
Fifteen-year-old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who was allergic to sesame died on a flight after eating one a Pret baguette bought at Heathrow. The second customer, who has not been named, died on December 27 after buying the sandwich in Bath.
Pret has said it has ended its contract with CoYo and is taking legal action.
“Subsequent testing by Pret and two independent authorities found that the CoYo dairy-free yoghurt contained traces of dairy protein,” said a Pret spokesperson. “This is believed to have resulted in the tragic death of a customer from an allergic reaction in December 2017. Our deepest sympathies are with the family and friends of our customer in this terrible case and we will seek to assist them in any way we can.”
— coyo.uk (@coyo_uk) October 7, 2018
CoYo said earlier today (Sunday) that Pret’s claims that it was to blame were ‘unfounded.’ It claimed Pret was hampering its own investigation by failing to provide required information.
“Pret’s inability to provide us with a batch code, despite several requests, has severely limited our ability to investigate this further,” it said in a statement.
CoYo has now denied that its subsequent product recall was related to the death.
“The dairy-free product we provided to Pret in December 2017, at the time of this tragedy, is not linked to the product we recalled in February 2018,” a spokesperson said.
Coyo said it had been devastated to discover dairy in its yoghurts, ‘especially as being dairy-free sits at the heart of everything we do.’
The company said that the contamination came from an external third-party supplier, and that the contract had been terminated.
