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British Teen Allergic to Dairy Died After Burger Joint Said His Birthday Meal Was Safe

Owen “died from a severe food-induced anaphylactic reaction from food eaten and ordered at a restaurant despite making staff aware of his allergies,” assistant coroner Briony Ballard ruled

A teenager with a dairy allergy had told a restaurant's staff about his condition and was misled into thinking his meal was safe before he ate it and died from a severe reaction, a coroner concluded at a London court Friday, the U.K. Press Association reported.

Owen Carey died after celebrating his 18th birthday with a meal at a Byron Burger, a chain restaurant in London, in 2017. Investigators at the Southwark Coroner’s Court looking into Owen's sudden death found the teen had told wait staff about his allergy. He died after eating chicken marinated in buttermilk, NBC News reports.

Owen “died from a severe food-induced anaphylactic reaction from food eaten and ordered at a restaurant despite making staff aware of his allergies,” Assistant coroner Briony Ballard ruled.

After the ruling, Byron Burger's chief executive, Simon Wilkinson, said in a statement that the restaurant takes "allergies extremely seriously and have robust procedures in place and although those procedures were in line with all the rules and guidelines, we train our staff to respond in the right way."

Wilkinson added that the company "heard what the Coroner said about the need to communicate about allergies," and that "it is clear that the current rules and requirements are not enough and the industry needs to do more."

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