SOME Islanders’ lives are being put at risk because of a lack of specific food allergy legislation in Jersey, according to the director of a restaurant chain.
Dominic Jones, of JPRestaurants, said it should be a requirement for hospitality venues to list the possible allergens in their food so that customers can make more informed decisions when choosing their meals.
He made the comments after the owners of the Upstairs at Anley Street restaurant in St Helier were fined £3,000 in the Magistrate’s Court after a diner was rushed to hospital suffering an allergic reaction when she was served a dish containing nuts – despite assurances that the meal did not contain them. The owners pleaded guilty to a charge of ‘selling food which was not of the nature demanded by the purchaser’, contrary to Jersey’s food safety laws.
However, there are currently no direct food allergy laws in Jersey.
Mr Jones questioned whether it would take a death following an allergic reaction before action was taken.
In the UK, restaurants or cafés must provide customers with allergen information in writing. This could be a list of allergens on their menu or a prompt explaining how you can obtain such information.
Under Natasha’s Law, which was introduced in the UK in 2021, all food retailers must display full ingredients and allergen information labels on every food item made on the premises and on pre-packed food for direct sale.
The law was introduced after 15-year-old Natasha Ednan-Laperous died in 2016 following an allergic reaction to sesame contained in a baguette bought from Pret a Manger.
Mr Jones, who also has a personal interest in the topic as he has a family member with an allergy, said that he believed restaurants should have an obligation and direct requirement to track its allergens.
‘Why do we have to wait for someone to die before we introduce food allergy legislation?’ he said.
‘Because we have no direct legislation around allergens, we are not seeing that education in restaurants or among the general public.’
Mr Jones said he feared that people with allergies would be put off eating in restaurants if tougher legislation was not introduced.
‘What you also have is some restaurants saying that if your allergy is so severe, then don’t eat our food. That is discrimination. It is completely unfair and also shows a miseducation on the topic, because anyone with an allergy can have a mild or severe reaction.
‘There is also the mental-health and stress issue of having a food allergy. Some people have a real fear and worry that they could die; it is extreme but it is a real issue. This is exacerbated by a lack of appropriate regulation in Jersey,’ he said.
‘We need legislation here to catch up. It is about putting the necessary requirements in place in order to minimise the risk of something happening.
‘Venues should list or understand the possible allergens in their food so that customers can make an informed decision when choosing their food.’
Mr Jones said that all of his restaurants already followed a strict process when dealing with allergies, which includes providing an allergen menu detailing the 14 main food allergens and marking each dish to warn the kitchen of a customer’s allergy.
‘There is also a lot of software and procurement systems out there to help us.
‘We use a digital system to help us build our recipes and the system pulls out ingredients with certain allergens, so it automatically registers it.
‘That way you aren’t relying on word of mouth from a chef,’ he said.
‘It is also about ensuring there are processes in place for cooking certain dishes and cleaning processes in place to try to avoid things such as cross contamination.’
