Last Thursday marked the start of Anaphylaxis Awareness Week (1–7 October) and five years
since Natasha's Law came into force. To mark it, TrustDiner is launching the UK's first public
anaphylaxis tracker to show where people with food allergies have reported anaphylaxis and
serious reactions at named restaurants, pubs and travel providers.
Preview the tracker: https://trustdiner.com/?view=reactions
THE DATA GAP
The UK still does not have a complete picture of how often these reactions are happening..
A 2024 FSA-commissioned evaluation found the UK Anaphylaxis Registry captured fewer
than 1 in 20 accidental allergic reactions. Only 11 of around 170 A&E departments took
part, and just 2% of reports involved adults, so adults reacting while eating out barely
appear.
The lack of comprehensive data has also been raised by coroners. Following the
death of Celia Marsh, the coroner called for a robust system to capture and record
anaphylaxis, including fatal and near fatal cases.
Ahead of launch, the tracker already holds 32 reports, including 10 of anaphylaxis, 13
serious reactions and 6 near misses. Nuts and milk are the triggers reported most often.
WHY IT MATTERS
Anaphylaxis can escalate within minutes: airways can close, blood pressure can drop and,
without adrenaline, it can be fatal. People at risk are advised to carry two adrenaline
auto-injectors at all times. Hospital admissions in England for food-related anaphylaxis and
other adverse food reactions rose 154% in two decades, from 1,971 in 2002–03 to 5,013
in 2022–23. Peanuts, tree nuts, milk and egg are among the most common triggers, and
cow's milk is now the most common cause of fatal anaphylaxis in children in the UK.
CASE STUDIES AVAILABLE
● Natalia, whose nine-year-old daughter went into anaphylactic shock after an Italian
restaurant in Tunbridge Wells served her a pudding containing hazelnut, despite her
allergies being declared several times. Natalia had to use her daughter's adrenaline
pen at home. "It was terrifying," she says. "I am in disbelief that they didn't even ask
how she was."
● A mother whose son needed adrenaline pens and an ambulance to hospital after
staff at a national restaurant chain marked their table as "no allergies" and served
him milk. She says the chain's own internal audit found staff hadn't followed
procedures. When she and her husband went back to check, they still weren't asked
about allergies. "My son was very poorly."
● Parents whose son suffered a "massive anaphylactic shock" and was taken to
hospital by ambulance after a pub served him dairy ice cream instead of the vegan
one they'd asked for. They say the pub then destroyed the unlabelled tub, so the
cause could never be tested.
PROFESSOR ADAM FOX OBE, Chair of the National Allergy Strategy Group, said:
"TrustDiner's Anaphylaxis Tracker is an important initiative, giving the allergy community a
way to share serious reactions experienced when eating out. Making these experiences
visible could help people make more informed choices, improve awareness across the
hospitality industry and, ultimately, help reduce the risk of life-threatening reactions."
Daniel Kelly, co-founder of TrustDiner, said:
“Almost everyone living with a serious food allergy has a story about a reaction or a
frightening experience when eating out, yet so many of those experiences are never properly
recorded or shared. Jacob and I both live with severe food allergies, so we built TrustDiner to
help people feel safer and more informed when choosing where to eat and travel. The
Anaphylaxis Tracker adds another important layer to that, making real community
experiences visible so they can hopefully help the next person make a safer, more informed
choice.”
Jacob Payne, co-founder of TrustDiner, said:
“I’ve left a restaurant in an ambulance before, having an anaphylactic reaction and not fully
understanding what was happening to me. It was frightening, but it’s also not something I’ve
talked about much. For a long time, I think I saw experiences like that as something that
happened to me because I was part of a small minority. The reality is that millions of people
in the UK live with food allergies, and serious reactions are happening far more often than
we see or hear about. We want to start making those experiences visible so we can better
understand the true scale of the problem.”