UK-based Indian restaurant fined for serving dish to girl with nut allergy

London/New Delhi, November 29 

A UK based Indian restaurant was fined 3,767 pounds (around Rs 3.5 lakhs) for serving a dish with peanuts to a teenager who had a nut allergy.

Her family was also asked to pay for the meal before she was rushed to hospital, Daily Mail Online reported on Thursday.

The report said that the staff at 'Gulshan' in Tynemouth near Newcastle had served the meal to the 16-year-old and assured her and her family that it was safe to eat.

However, after eating a few mouthfuls, her tongue began to tingle and swell due to allergic reaction, a court was told later. Shockingly, the family were made to pay for the meal before they left the curry house.

She was taken to North Tyneside General Hospital and then to Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital in Cramlington.

Officials from the local authority's food safety team took the remnants of the chicken curry for testing, the court was told. It was found to contain a peanut protein at a level that could cause a reaction in someone suffering from nut allergy.

Investigations at the restaurant revealed inadequate food safety procedures, including wrongly labelled ingredients, lack of staff training and insufficient separation of food to prevent cross-contamination of allergen ingredients.

Since then, the restaurant owners have been fined £3,767 and directed to pay £2,744 as costs and £1,000 as compensation after the company pleaded guilty to breaching the Food Safety Act, 1990.

The family had booked a table at the restaurant on November 10 last year after they were assured on the phone that the eating house can take care of the teenager's nut allergy.

The court was told that improvements had since been made and that, after re-inspection in April 2019, the restaurant had a level-5 food hygiene rating. — IANS