Yes-- plenty of blame to spread around there.  I am stunned whenever I try to rationalize the number of food allergy specialists in the UK with the population density I've seen first-hand.

WOW.      

Recipe for disaster-- or at the very least, tragedy like this.  Yes.

another problem is that in curry houses tree nuts such as almond are very common. Almonds are more expensive than peanuts, so often cheaper ground peanut is mixed with the almond powder. So its very easy to get a good dose of peanut let alone tree nut in your meal.
Often curry sauces are made in advance and cross contamination is very likely.

There are many adults with asthma with known peanut /nut allergy who have never been prescribed an auto injector and have no real idea that they have the potential to have anaphylaxis. The only 'mild peanut  allergy' is something I hear on a regular basis.

So, no medical support , no advice, no real idea that they should be asking for medical help and the idea that being careful means that accidents don't ever happen. Its a sad state of affairs that we are still loosing people like this time and time again.

I think that this may reflect a difference in the UK versus North America-- that is, we're used to a _______ Restaurant, that offers an option to order menu items to go.

THERE, there exist establishments in cities in particular, but also in villages that we visited, where space is at such a premium that they aren't really "restaurants" in the North American sense at all.  More like catering kitchens or something-- with a window for pickups.

MANY MANY MANY of those types of establishments use peanuts or cashews in particular because of the incorporation of Indian cuisine into the UK lexicon.  It's much like the permeation of some types of Asian cuisine into western N. America-- it's truly in EVERYTHING.


The bottom line is that MOST take-away restaurants should be considered "Chinese" or "Indian" in that model because of what they handle and prepare.  Having seen how tiny the kitchen space is in a few places in the UK-- no way could there be a way to prevent XC in this kind of food preparation. 

Agreed about the risks in certain types of restaurants needs to be considered.  Not to mention always being prepared with epinephrine!  What a sad story!

Just awful.   

"Speaking after the inquest, Mrs Brown remained adamant the drugs played little or no part in her son's death and is now urging other allergy sufferers to be aware of what might be in their food."

I do know alcohol can exacerbate a reaction. I wonder if the drugs he took can as well. 


"It is becoming an ever increasing problem particularly with takeaway foods when you simply don't know what is in it."

Hmmm . . . this is problematic.  The emphasis should be on the types of restaurants, take out or not, that tend to be higher risk.