Byron burger death: Owen Carey misled into believing there were no allergens in meal, coroner rules

James Morris13 September 2019

A teenager with a dairy allergy who suffered a fatal reaction after eating a burger at a London branch of Byron was misled into believing there were no allergens in the meal, a coroner has ruled.

Owen Carey, 18, told staff he was allergic to dairy but suffered the reaction after eating grilled chicken coated in buttermilk at the restaurant at the O2 Arena, in Greenwich, in April 2017.

Following the conclusion of the inquest on Friday, Mr Carey's family, who called him its "shining light", called for the government to change the law on allergen labelling in restaurants.

In a written conclusion, assistant coroner Briony Ballard, sitting at Southwark Coroner's Court, had said: "The deceased made serving staff aware of his allergies.

Owen Carey, died on April 22, 2017, after suffering an allergic reaction to a burger at the Byron restaurant chain
PA

"The menu was reassuring in that it made no reference to any marinade or potential allergenic ingredient in the food selected.

"The deceased was not informed that there were allergens in the order."

Mr Carey died from "a severe anaphylactic reaction".

Following the ruling, Mr Carey's family said in a statement outside the court: "Owen was the shining light in our family.

A file image of a Byron sign
Yui Mok/PA

"We are calling on the government to change the law on allergen labelling in restaurants.

"We want restaurants to have to display clear allergen information on each individual dish on their menus.

"The food industry should put the safety of their customers first.

"It is simply not good enough to have a policy which relies on verbal communication between the customer and their server, which often takes places in a busy, noisy restaurant where the turnover of staff is high and many of their customers are very young."

Owen Carey, died on April 22, 2017, after suffering an allergic reaction to a burger at the Byron restaurant chain 
PA

Mr Carey, of Crowborough, east Sussex, collapsed less than an hour after first experiencing the allergic reaction and died in hospital.

Immediately after the ruling on Friday, Byron chief executive Simon Wilkinson said in a statement: "We take allergies extremely seriously and have robust procedures in place and although those procedures were in line with all the rules and guidelines, we train our staff to respond in the right way.

"It is a matter of great regret and sadness that our high standards of communicating with our customers were not met during Owen's visit.

"We believe we always did our best to meet our responsibilities but we know that this will be of no comfort to Owen's family."

Mr Wilkinson went on: "We have heard what the coroner said about the need to communicate about allergies and it is clear that the current rules and requirements are not enough and the industry needs to do more.

"We will make it our priority to work with our colleagues across the restaurant industry to ensure that standards and levels of awareness are improved."

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