A FATHER who lives near Callington is calling for a change in the laws around allergy labelling after his 18-year-old son died after unknowingly eating a burger that contained dairy.

Paul Carey’s son Owen, who had a dairy allergy and had suffered with multiple food allergies all his life, died after going into anaphylactic shock after eating a burger at a London restaurant that he had been told was safe for him to eat but had been marinated in buttermilk.

Six years on from Owen’s death in 2017, the family are welcoming the news that their call to change the laws around allergy labelling is to be debated in Parliament next week.

Two weeks after his 18th birthday, Owen was celebrating in London when he collapsed near the London Eye shortly after eating the burger and after paramedics tried to resuscitate him, he could not be saved.

After the inquest was concluded two years following his death, it confirmed that he had been misinformed by the waiter at Byron Burger.

Following Owen’s death, his father and other family members set up a campaign to ensure allergens are listed in writing on menus.

After tireless campaigning, and obtaining 13,000 signatures on their petition, the family are hoping that MPs will support Owen’s Law.

Paul said: ‘Owen was the youngest, the baby of the family.

‘When he was born he had lots of different allergies and we managed them. As he got older we made sure he was aware of what to do and he was very well trained. Owen was confident and knew how to manage his allergies.

‘The law needs to be changed so that people like Owen who suffer seriously from allergies no longer have to fear eating in restaurants.’

Paul explained that the current regulations state that restaurants need to provide information about allergens ‘by any means’, but Paul wants this changed to ‘in writing’.

Paul added, ‘one of the points we make is not everybody wants to talk about their allergies and sometimes waiters don’t ask.

‘Having the allergens in writing allows customers to see the allergens without asking and it forces the responsibility to the manager of the restaurant, not to the waiter.

‘We also hope that staff training will prevent any future needless deaths of people with food allergies.’

Following a successful petition, the notion to have allergens listed in writing on menus is to be debated in Parliament on Monday (May 15).

‘We only got 13,000 signatures and we thought that was it, as normally you need 100,000’, said Paul .

‘But then to our surprise, we got the news that we’d been selected.

‘We’re hoping that the MPs will support it and that they will change the law.’

The family will be in attendance of the Westminster Hall debate and are encouraging people to write to their local MPs to ask them to attend the debate and support it.

A template letter is found here: https://owens-law.co.uk/.

‘We’re trying to make sure that we don’t have another death and that no other parent has to hear those dreadful words about a child’, said Paul.

‘I’m never going to get Owen back, I just want to die knowing that we made a difference and that Owen didn’t die in vain.’