Nut Allergy Reaction

A curry house has apologised to a 28-year-old man with a nut allergy who needed six hours of hospital treatment after eating a takeaway.

The Massalla Lounge, in Worcester, promised Neil Coombes that his chicken jalfrezi order contained no almond powder or cashews.

But when the tool-maker ate his takeaway his lips and throat began swelling up in an allergic reaction.

Mr Coombes, of St Johns, was put on a saline drip and injected with adrenaline to stabilise his condition.

The curry house did not accept any nuts had got into the dish but offered Mr Coombes a replacement meal.

Mr Coombes said: "I'm OK now, but I'm angry that the curry house didn't even offer an apology. When I spoke to the manager he insisted the Jalfrezi didn't contain nuts. I said there may not have been nuts in the recipe, but they must have got into the dish somehow.

"They said they often catered for people with allergies, to things like garlic and so on, and didn't accept that there were nuts in this curry. The least I wanted was an apology. I told them I wouldn't be using them again and put the phone down.

Copyright © PA Business 2008

Katrina Elsey from law firm Irwin Mitchell said: "This case demonstrates the lack of concern for food safety where a failure to take adequate care in the preparation of food can have serious consequences and can sometimes be life threatening.

"Restaurants and Takeaways need to be more vigilant in what ingredients are contained within the food prepared and to ensure that the proper advice about what ingredients their food contains is given."