An inquest into the death of a woman who ate a 'vegan' wrap from Pret due to conclude

An inquest into the death of a woman who ate a 'vegan' wrap from Pret due to conclude
Pret
Paige Creaney

By Paige Creaney


Published: 22/09/2022

- 09:36

Updated: 22/09/2022

- 10:23

An inquest has taken place after a 42-year-old woman who had an acute dairy allergy died after eating a wrap that was advertised as vegan by Pret-A-Manger.

Celia Marsh, 42, a dental nurse from Melksham, Wiltshire, died on December 27 2017 after eating a super-veg rainbow flatbread from the chain’s store in Bath, Somerset.

Undated file handout family photo issued by Leigh Day of Celia Marsh. The inquest at Avon Coroner's Court into the death of the woman with an acute dairy allergy, who died shortly after eating a Pret a Manger vegan wrap, is due to conclude. Marsh, 42, a dental nurse from Melksham, Wiltshire, died on December 27 2017 after eating a super-veg rainbow flatbread from the chain's store in Bath, Somerset. Issue date: Thursday September 22, 2022.
Celia Marsh died after eating a 'vegan' wrap
Leigh Day


The coconut yoghurt used as dressing from Australian brand CoYo, which was licensed for manufacture in the UK to British firm Planet Coconut, is thought to have had traces of milk in it.

An inquest at Avon Coroner’s Court heard the mother-of-five avoided all dairy products following a near-fatal allergic reaction a few months earlier in which she needed 15 shots of adrenalin.

Maria Voisin, senior coroner for Avon, is due to deliver her conclusion in the case on Thursday morning.

It comes just six years after the death of 15-year-old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who died in 2016 after eating a Pret baguette containing sesame seeds, bought at Heathrow Airport.

Mrs Marsh had been on a post-Christmas shopping trip with her husband and three of her daughters when she went into Pret to buy something to eat at around 2pm.

She was declared dead less than two hours later.

The Pret A Manger store on Board Street in Reading, Berkshire, which is one of the stores to be closed by the restaurant chain who have announced that they will permanently shut 30 stores after footfall was hammered by the coronavirus lockdown.
Pret-A-Manger falsely advertised a wrap as vegan
Steve Parsons

The wrap had been consumed in its entirety, and the pot of CoYo brand yoghurt used to make it was thrown away before Bath and North East Somerset Council began its investigation.

But testing on other pots found small quantities of dairy protein in the product, with traces found in another rainbow wrap.

During the two-week inquest, a chemist acknowledged the quantity of dairy in the wrap was too low to be measured with any degree of accuracy, but said he believed it definitely contained milk.

It is thought the contamination stemmed from the HG1 starch in the yoghurt.

Interested parties in the inquest were Bath and North East Somerset Council, CoYo and Planet Coconut.

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