Customers required emergency hospital treatment after suffering severe allergic reactions in two separate incidents at Ashburton cafes.
In the worst reaction, the customer collapsed outside the cafe and went into anaphylactic shock before being treated at the hospital’s emergency department.
A recent district council report highlighted the seriousness of the two recent incidents.
Miscommunication resulted in customers receiving food they were allergic too, the report said. The cafes were not named.
The district council, as the district’s food regulatory authority, had issued both cafes “satisfactory outcomes’’ in food safety audits before the incidents.
In the first incident, a cafe guest with a history of severe allergies ordered a vegan bagel and notified cafe staff of their condition.
The person was given a gluten-free bagel instead and suffered a severe allergic reaction.
They alerted staff, left the premises and collapsed and required treatment at A&E for anaphylactic shock.
The investigation found a communication breakdown was to blame. Staff had failed to record and communicate the correct allergies to the food server and cashier.
In response, staff were retrained on allergies. And procedures were improved to communicate between workers when a customer alerted them of their specific allergies.
In the second incident, a guest with a nut allergy visited a different cafe.
The person ordered a dessert item advertised as having a chocolate sauce topping. But it was actually a Nutella sauce topping, causing the customer to have a severe allergic reaction, which also required treatment at A&E.
The investigation found the purchased item was new to the menu and incorrectly listed as having a chocolate topping.
The cafe had since corrected its advertising, improved checks on food and had staff retrained on allergies.
Compliance and development group manager Ian Hyde said the two cafes concerned had been audited in the reporting period before the incidents and were found to be operating satisfactorily.
“How often an operation gets checked will depend on whether it is a high or low-risk business,’’ Hyde said.
“It will also depend on how well food safety is managed. Those who are doing well will be checked less frequently.”
